There has been a lot of chatter over the past week about transparency at the administrative level.  Faculty have complained there is little, administration claims there is lots. The most recent new administrative appointment presents an interesting case. First of all, did anyone in the general community know that the position of associate vice chancellor for academic operations was being created? There was no search, thus no reason for an announcement of a search.

And then there was the public news reporting on the new position and its occupant, Chris Sedore. On Feb. 6, SU News posted a release in impenetrable prose:

‘Christopher Sedore, CIO and vice president for information technology, has been named to the newly created position of associate vice chancellor for academic operations. …  Sedore’s keen ability to make data-driven decisions will be of significant value in providing support and guidance to Academic Affairs support units and their leadership, including Enrollment Management, University College, the Syracuse University Library, Information Technology and Services, and the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment, each of which will be within Sedore’s operational portfolio. Vital connections for each unit’s leader will be maintained to the vice chancellor and provost and other collaborative partners.’

This was an announcement of a significant change in lines of reporting, i.e. that the Dean of the Library, Suzanne Thorin, an academic position, will no longer report directly to the vice chancellor like every other dean, but rather to an associate vice chancellor, a nonacademic position, who then reports to the vice chancellor.

This change matters greatly to the academics at the university. The library is at the core of our intellectual enterprise. I have known Chris Sedore for more than 20 years — once upon a time he was a student in the anthropology department. I know Sedore has real skills. I think the issue is, what is this new role that has been created for him? What in fact will he be doing that the head of the library would report to him? Is the library only to be thought of as a place to access data and the library’s management is about efficiency? What is the intellectual task at hand?

Where, one asks, is the transparency that Kevin Quinn assures us is present?

Deborah Pellow

Professor of Anthropology

Published on February 26, 2012 at 12:00 pm