Editorial: Napolitano nomination for UC presidency lacks transparency

The decision by a University of California search committee to nominate a career politician for the system’s highest post came as a surprise to many UC stakeholders.

The nomination of Janet Napolitano, current U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security and former governor of Arizona, to the UC presidency has drawn mixed reactions, largely because of her inexperience in academia and university administration.

While Napolitano’s cabinet position, previous post as the governor of Arizona and time as a U.S. Attorney have surely equipped her to manage a large bureaucracy, the lack of transparency in the selection process left the public and the UC community in the dark throughout the search.

This board urges University administrators to provide further explanation of how they picked an individual with no experience in California politics and no familiarity with its public universities. We hope the regents will also make public the names of other finalists for the position and will explain, in detail, the intent behind their decision and the specific qualities they believe make Napolitano the best fit for the UC.

As we wrote in April, the secrecy that cloaks the presidential nomination process is inconsistent with the transparency and inclusivity expected of our public education system.

It is too early to pass judgment on how Napolitano might handle the UC’s affairs. But it is immediately evident that Friday’s announcement, and indeed the UC’s presidential nomination process as a whole, fails to meet even basic standards of transparency.

The nomination process was carried out by the Special Committee to Consider the Selection of a President, a board consisting of eight regents. Academic, alumni, staff and student committees were consulted in advisory roles, but not asked to weigh in on specific candidates. The recommendations of these constituent committees should also be made public.

Friday’s nomination was made public less than a week before the UC Board of Regents are scheduled to meet at UC San Francisco’s Mission Bay campus. It came with no warning and was announced only with a simple written statement.

Further, there was no item on the agenda for this week’s regents’ meeting indicating that there was to be a vote to approve a candidate for the position.

The Board of Regents is set to review Napolitano’s nomination in a special session on Thursday. This board hopes that as they review the nomination, members of the board keep in mind that the UC president does not simply preside over the Office of the President, but over every University campus, laboratory and medical system.

This selection is of great importance to hundreds of thousands of Californians, and they deserve a forthright explanation after such a surprising move.