A group of Kent State University journalism faculty are calling for transparency in the search to replace President Beverly Warren, arguing the current process violates the state’s open records law.
A statement Monday, signed by a group of about 14 faculty from Kent State’s school of communication and journalism, asks for the university to release information about the finalists, including relevant documents. When Warren was hired, the university kept the names of the finalists confidential and did not release search documents after she was named president.
Instead, the university had signed a contract which allowed the search firm conducting the process to decide which records were released, according to the Akron Beacon Journal. One member of the search committee told the newspaper that the university shredded his notes.
“Despite spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars on the search, the first the university community learned of any candidate for the job was when the Board of Trustees announced President Beverly Warren had been hired,” faculty wrote in the statement. “Through no fault of her own, Warren started as president under a cloud of suspicion because of the secrecy surrounding her hiring.”