Currently there are three major university administrations positions being filled by interim personnel. So who are these new officials, why did the old ones leave and what do they even do within the university?
President
Following the sudden and only recently explained resignation of Arvind Gupta, UBC recruited Martha Piper, the president from 1997-2006, to serve as the interim president while the search for a new president was conducted. The president has arguably one of the largest roles within the university as their main role is to provide direction and oversight for the entire university. According to the provincial University Act, the president is the chief executive officer for the university, has the power to suspend both students and staff, is a member of the board, chair of the senate, a member of all standing committees of the senate except for appeals and a member of each faculty.
To hire a president, a search committee composed of representatives from the Board of Governors, faculty, students, senators, deans, alumni and staff work with a talent firm to find the perfect candidate. While all the candidates for the permanent position of president are currently confidential, Piper said in an interview with The Ubyssey at the start of the year that she doesn’t plan to keep the position longer than June 30 and that she was initially reluctant to take the interim position in the first place.
Provost and VP Academic
David Farrar, the Provost and VP Academic of UBC, stepped down from his position in July and took on a new position as presidential advisor. While some were hesitant about this transition, saying that he was pushed out by former president Gupta, Farrar remarked at the time to The Ubyssey that stepping down “[felt] like the right thing to do.” Angela Redish — a professor of economics, former head of the department of economics and senior advisor to UBC’s president — has taken over the position in the interim.
According to the university’s website, the provost is responsible for the “academic mandate of UBC at its Vancouver campus, providing vision and leadership in planning, policy development and management of resources to achieve strategic goals articulated in the UBC Strategic Plan.” Within her temporary position, Redish is responsible for 12 faculties as well as other academic aspects of the university such as the libraries, Information Technology, Continuing Studies and others.
The president is in charge of leading the search to find a new provost, so this position won’t get filled until the presidential position does. This also means that the position of associate VP Academic also won’t get hired until then too.
AMS General Manager
Ross Horton, the general manager of the AMS for eight years, resigned in February. Keith Hester, the director of finance and administration, has taken over the position in the interim. According to Aaron Bailey, Horton’s resignation came from Horton himself. The hiring process for this has not been announced yet as Bailey said that the hiring process would not start until after the AMS governance review was finished and all recommendations were announced. This happened last week, so that will probably be soon. As the name suggests, the general manager of the AMS serves “at the helm” of the AMS. But unlike the executives, they are hired rather than being elected and serve for longer. They’re also in charge of the business performance of AMS businesses.