The University of Wisconsin System may change its hiring policy following stark criticism over an interim appointment of a senior position.
Board of Regents President Chuck Pruitt said the system’s hiring policy must be altered to better clarify the policy of hiring interim replacements to fill key leadership positions.
Pruitt said the Regents enacted a policy in 1988 that outlined the search and screen process for chancellors, senior vice presidents and vice presidents in the UW System, but this policy does not address interim appointments for any of these positions.
However, Pruitt said it has been the UW System’s policy for over 20 years to hire people to important positions on an interim basis without a search committee.
Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen issued a statement earlier this month questioning the legality of the hiring of Michael Morgan to the position of UW System senior vice president for administration and fiscal affairs.
In the statement, Van Hollen said he did not have the statutory authority to investigate the matter and would leave it up to the Board of Regents if they wanted to go back and examine the hiring process.
Morgan, who had served as Gov. Jim Doyle’s secretary of administration, was appointed to a three-year contract in June.
Van Hollen’s statement followed allegations of hiring violations from Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater.
Nass said because no search party or committee was created to fill the position and no other candidates were considered, Reilly violated the Board of Regents’ hiring policies when he appointed Morgan.
In a letter to the Regents, Pruitt said they felt they could not afford to wait for a lengthy search process to be completed to fill the position of UW System’s senior vice president of finance and administration.
“Leaving the senior vice president position vacant for an extended period of time would have been unwise and very risky, given pressing challenges the UW currently faces,” Pruitt said.
UW System spokesperson David Giroux agreed with Pruitt, and said they cannot leave an important leadership position on a campus or in the UW System vacant for even a day let alone how long it takes to find a permanent replacement.
“Look at it this way, if a team’s starting left guard goes down with a knee injury the coach has to replace him right away,” Giroux said. “You wouldn’t run the next play with no one out there.”
Giroux added hiring interim leaders to important positions is a long standing practice which has served them well in the past.
Pruitt said a national search for a permanent replacement would cost around $100,000 and take six to nine months to complete.
He added they have not begun a search yet, but will before Morgan’s three-year contract is complete.
According to Pruitt, the Board of Regents will most likely look at amending the wording of their hiring policies to include interim appointments at their scheduled meeting in August.
