Internal hiring at Marquette has pros, cons
By: James Teats and Steve Yanda
Posted: 5/1/08
http://media.www.marquettetribune.org/media/storage/paper1130/news/2008/05/01/News/Internal.Hiring.At.Marquette.Has.Pros.Cons-3358702.shtmlInternal hiring at Marquette
Pros and cons
Hiring from within at other universities
Upper level administrative postions that need to be filled at Marquette
Incoming Provost John Pauly is just one of a handful of recent hires Marquette made internally, sparking discussion over the legitimacy of such moves. In addition to Pauly, Dean William Cullinan of the College of Health Sciences, Athletic Director Steve Cottingham and Head Coach Brent "Buzz" Williams of the men's basketball team also are recent internal hires.
"In instances where internal candidates were hired, it was clearly a reflection of the excellent recruiting and retention of talented individuals that Marquette has done over time," said Brigid O'Brien Miller, director of university communication, in an e-mail. "It is natural to expect that these individuals would have potential for upward mobility. It is not surprising that Marquette would seek to advance into higher positions its most promising leaders."
Marquette currently has openings in five upper-level administrative positions: deans of the Colleges of Business Administration, Nursing and Arts & Sciences, as well as an interim dean for the College of Communication and vice president of Student Affairs.
Searches to fill these positions are underway, according to Miller.
Certainly, there are pros and cons to internal candidates, and the university undoubtedly will review such applications in the coming months.
In Pauly's case, he wasn't looking to move up the administrative ladder at Marquette. He was happy with his current job as dean of the College of Communication. But after people at Marquette nominated him for the university provost opening, he decided to apply for the position.
More than 50 applicants and a nationwide search later, university president the Rev. Robert A. Wild deemed Pauly the best person for the job.
Pauly said justifying internal hires depends on the position and context. He said with a university fostering the growth of its employees, internal leaders will emerge.
"But it's important not to be 'comfy,'" Pauly said. "Sometimes we have to reconsider whether we're as good as we think we are."
At his provost forum in March, Pauly said he told people not to choose him because they liked him and were comfortable with him, but because he was the best candidate to move the university forward.
Like Pauly, St. Louis University Provost Joe Weixlmann said he would not have applied for the position if he wasn't already a dean at the university. After being a dean for 10 years, he said he wasn't looking for the switch to provost.
Weixlmann served as interim provost in 2002 and assumed the position full-time a year later after a nationwide search.
He said a national search for new deans has always been conducted during his time as provost and that the university is typically more likely to choose external candidates.
"Sometimes you just have to go outside because of politics and things like that," Weixlmann said.
He said it is generally more expensive to hire external candidates from a salary standpoint.
Robert Doolittle, a communications professor at the University of Tulsa, described internal hiring as a "mixed bag." He said there are some times when internal hiring is good, while other times it turns out sour.
In his career, Doolittle said he has witnessed internal hires being chosen for the wrong reasons, such as the administration not wanting to spend the money for an outside search. He said internal hiring can be the quickest and easiest way to fill a position.
When a university chooses an interim administrator to move to the full-time position, Doolittle said the university sometimes commits to a national search to test how the interim measures up to other candidates. He said an advantage of internally hiring an interim is that the university gets to see firsthand what that person can do.
Bruce Rasmussen understands the scrutiny that sometimes accompanies an internal hire for a high profile position at a university. Almost 14 years ago, Rasmussen was named the director of athletics at Creighton University after a two-year stint as the school's associate athletic director. He had previously spent 12 years as the Creighton women's basketball coach.
Though Rasmussen was familiar with Creighton coaches, athletes, boosters, administrators and fans at the time he was hired as the director of athletics, he also heard the whispers. There was a contingent that wondered why the university hadn't gone outside its own athletic department to bring in someone with a more administrative background, said Rasmussen.
"In hindsight," Rasmussen said last week in a phone interview, "I think it turned out OK."
Rasmussen has made his share of hires - both external and internal. He said there needs to be a strong, established track record of involvement from the university president and athletic director in order to justify hiring internal candidates.
"In the absence of that, it is much more difficult," Rasmussen said. "People think you've taken the easy way out. They say, 'You tell me you looked outside, but you can't prove to me that you looked outside.' "
In February, Cottingham was named Marquette's athletic director after a 14-month interim stint during which he conducted the search for a permanent replacement. Though Cottingham stated throughout the search process that he was not interested in the full-time position, he eventually concluded he was the best person for the job.
Of the 60 candidates who applied for the full-time position, none were interviewed. As a private institution, Marquette is not required to conduct interviews with any specific number of applicants.
Before joining in 1995 Marquette's Office of the General Counsel, the principal representative for legal matters involving Marquette University, Cottingham worked in private practice for a law firm currently known as Reinhart, Boerner, Van Deuren, S.C., based in Milwaukee. He became the university's associate senior vice president in September 2003.
Less than two months into his term as athletic director, Cottingham had to hire a new men's basketball coach after Tom Crean left to take over the program at Indiana. A week-long search led to the announcement that Buzz Williams would be Crean's replacement. Williams served as one of Crean's assistant coaches during the 2007-'08 season.
Prior to assuming the reins at Marquette, Williams had one stint as a head coach. He led the University of New Orleans to a 14-17 record in 2006-'07.
Senior Vice President Greg Kliebhan, who played a major role in the hirings of both Cottingham and Williams, declined an interview request.