Help wanted

Once again the university has a chance to redeem itself.

The committee searching for a new associate vice president of institutional diversity expects to bring three candidates to campus in March.

Normally, storylines over the next few weeks would center around who the potential candidates are and what they have to offer.

But lately, we also have to wonder if CMU can find another way to screw up a national search.

Pamela Gates, chair of the search committee and interim dean of the College of Humanities, Social and Behavioral Science, said in a Monday story she expects one of the three candidates to replace Maureen Eke by summer.

Unfortunately, it’s not that easy to believe her.

CMU has dropped the ball in its past two national searches, taking more than two years to find an associate vice president for off-campus programs, and, most recently, extending its search for an associate vice president and provost.

Hopefully Gates and her search committee have learned a thing or two and don’t repeat their colleagues’ past mistakes.

With students’ increasing demands for more diversity at CMU, it would be in Central’s best interest to not mess up this search.

Not to mention the search already has been delayed. Last summer, Michael Powell, affirmative action officer and interim AVP for institutional diversity, said finding Eke’s replacement should only take a few months.

But that’s in the past now. The search committee can redeem itself by making a timely recommendation to University President Michael Rao once the candidates finish on-campus interviews.

One thing it shouldn’t do, however, is choose Powell if he decides to apply, which he hinted to in Monday’s story. Gates and Powell said the affirmative action officer and AVP for institutional diversity both are important jobs.

Promoting Powell not only would most likely create another search for a new affirmative action officer, but it would waste whatever the university is spending on its current search and interview process.

CMU also has an unfortunate history of spending money on a national search, then choosing the interim replacement anyway, most recently with choosing Roger Rehm last summer as vice president of information technology.

By bringing candidates to campus who lack the “whole package,” or by choosing Powell, the university once again would be dropping the ball in a national search.

If that happens, Central seriously needs to reconsider its approach when it comes to conducting consistent national searches.

Because fluctuating back and forth between hiring national search firms and conducting internal national searches doesn’t seem to be working.

But it does waste university money.