I've worked at UVU for several years and was here when Holland was appointed president.

He has made his mistakes but seems to have learned from them and he has done some good things.

Generally, I've been willing to give him the benefit of the doubt...until now.

There has been a candidate search going on for several months to replace the retiring Senior VP for Academic Affairs. The committee conducted a national search and narrowed the intial list of candidates down to four (three external and one internal). All of the candidates were interviewed and vetted. The only one the committee recommended was the internal candidate.

No, said Holland. I want at least two candidates to consider. So, the committee brought in a fourth external candidate to be vetted. He was a disaster (faculty were particularly vocal about his stance on academic freedom and tenure).

Holland still insisted that they bring in still another external candidate. Which they did. The general consensus about this candidate was lukewarm, but the committee put his name forward along with the name of the internal candidate.

Okay. So, the internal candidate has a strong academic and administrative record, has been at UVU as a department chair and a Dean. He had strong support from the committee, the faculty, and the other deans. He is, however, non-Mormon.

The external candidate was chosen. This guy:

http://blogs.uvu.edu/newsroom/2014/05/05/uvu-announces-new-senior-vice-president-for-academic-affairs/

The press release makes him sound better than he really is, but his academic credentials don't matter - he is not only a Mormon, but a seventy. It is clear from how the process was handled that this guy was Hollands choice from the very beginning and that the search committee and internal candidate were cover for what he was going to do anyway.

Even the Mormons I know on campus are upset by Holland's manipulation of the process and how he ignored the recommendations of the committee, the Deans, and the faculty.

Start a protest. Educate on what happened. Do it now. Or the good ol boy network of mormonism gets in deeper in an institution that many use to escape church controlled education.

Do something about it.

^^^Agreed

There is some discussion of faculty holding a non-confidence vote in Holland's leadership.

Staff are in a precarious position as we are techinically at-will employees.

But Holland times his announcement for the break between the end of spring semester and the beginning of summer. Most faculty are gone.

If it is truly important to them they will return and do what is necessary to get their voices heard, and to stop this.

No one takes advantage of us without our permission, whether freely given or implied. Not sure where I heard it first, but it is true. if you don't get vocal or try to work against it, people will use that lack of response as the justification to move ahead and do whatever they want, even when they know absolutely it is not what you want, or what he organization needs most.

E Gordon Gee tried this crap at OSU when I was admin there. Didn't work the way he wanted it to either time he pretended to helm the place, because so many people were on to him and what he was doing. It ended up biting him in the butt. Unfortunately, another school now has to deal with him.

Holland says this of Olsen: "He understands and values the many voices that contribute to the university environment and invites dialogue, collaboration, and collegiality." Yet Holland doesn't and he doesn't think a non-mormon could do those things. Mormon arrogance at it's finest.

as a new uvu employee and very much on the periphery of the school, even I could tell there was heavy manipulation of the hiring process going on.

There was such clear support of the internal candidate, hope and faith in the hiring process... yet the continual bringing in of new people? Please. Who is fooled?

I'd like to think Holland felt his hands were tied in this case for his religious ties and that he'll hold steady but if daddy's friends always get what they want.. where's the line? Holland may be some mucky muck's son but he's still the president and the his responsibility to the institution is his. He's done well so far it seems--there's a lot of good sentiment toward him that I can tell--and all of that is is danger of falling down the tubes..

Tell the papers, put it out there, spread the word. Sunlight has a way of clearing up the dead stuff.

I wonder how that internal candidate feels... ?

I did a search and can't find local papers reports on UVU's new hire--interesting...

why wouldn't they report on a huge school's big news? Are they afraid of the comments?

Is asking that newspapers report news a stupid request? Or are they getting to it?

I graduated from UVSC 11 years ago and got an AA from UVCC about 12 years prior to that. I have many friends who work or taught there. I have really seen it go through a lot of changes, some obvious to the community and some not. It has been sad to see some of the things that have happened since I left there, especially with the choice of Holland as Pres. Who was the internal candidate if you can say? Or give his/her initials.

He is presently the Dean of the College of Humanities & Social Sciences.

I haven't heard of him, so he must be new in the last 10 years. Man, I was in tight at one time with a lot of people who worked in HASS. I see very few names now that I recognize. I'm getting old.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/06/2014 06:45PM by NormaRae.

Oh that pisses me off. I am not currently in school, on leave of absence. The internal is a great man. is there a way to go public with this without risking careers?

http://www.belnapfamily.net/joy/Funeral_Service/CD2Track%201.mp3

@ 7:00 minutes he starts speaking (Elder Jeffery E. Olson.)

What a creepy eulogy. He waxes ecstatic about eating and how the dead person has some "quickening" that not special (read Mormon) dead don't have. The audience laughs and then realizes he wasn't joking.

It is like someone in a cult being totally obsessed with his cult.

Super creep is moving to Mormon central - my home town Orem, Utah.

He must think he is moving up the GA ladder.

Nepotism, mormon style.

I've seen this kind of thing happen before. It's how mediocrity is rewarded in the morridor. As long as you are a mormon is good standing you can be promoted, hired, given a raise, et.

This story belongs in the SL Tribune.

Devil's advocate here

JEO, Associate Provost at St. Johns (employed there for 17 years), UofU College of Law admin and Associate Dean (7 years), JD UofU 1977, PhD Stanford 1990.

DPY, Instructor at UoN Omaha, Buena Vista U, Iowa Western CC, and Metropolitan CC (89-98). Visiting Professor at UoN Omaha (98-99). Various at UVU (2001-Present). MA UoN Lincoln 1990, PhD UoN Lincoln 1994.

DPY appears to be an accomplished teacher, JEO appears to be an accomplished administrator. If I was hiring someone to do a job, I would want to hire the person who could do the job, not the person who would appease the people who work for me.

In addition, there are very specific items that you can fix with an external hire, what if Holland had those weaknesses in mind?

Again just as the devil's advocate.

DPY is more than qualified for this position. He has been the Dean of the College of Humanities & Social Sciences for 4+ years. He has the unqualified support of his faculty and fellow deans.

But this is really about Holland disingenuous manipulation of the process. Olson was the search committees 4th external choice - after three others had been brought to campus for extensive interviews. It is clear from the way things went down that Holland wanted Olson from the beginning and manipulated the process to get the end result he wanted.

Holland has subverted the process twice already in the appointment of the current SVPAA and VP of Student Affairs without even having a search committee. But they were internal candidates and he could do that even though it was technically against policy. He only conducted the external search this time because his candidate could only apply as an external candidate.

Plus one to what jacob wrote.

The new hire has a much richer CV than the Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences. Additionally, given the direction UVU is trying to go (expanding its graduate-level offerings, primarily), it makes more sense to me to bring in somebody with extensive graduate program experience.

I got my MBA from UVU, attend their scholarship galas every year, am on campus at least once a month, and am a much bigger booster for UVU than I am for BYU (despite holding degrees from both institutions). I'm an ex-Mormon. This doesn't bother me at all.

If you'd like, you can see exactly what Holland is making right now, here:
http://www.utahsright.com/profile.php?id=2756748

And you'll soon be able to see what Olsen makes as well.

I'd also recommend you at least give the admin a few months before poisoning the well.

The pattern is disturbing, Alpiner. And this is an escalation of the pattern.

LDS male candidates are getting hired again and again over everyone else. Holland has gotten rid of non-MO and women in many offices, replacing them with MO men. The outgoing VP picked several high level appointees before he left. Same thing.

Good people are looking elsewhere. And the BYU Lite nightmare is more and more becoming a waking reality.

One of Holland's favorite words is "inclusive." As long as you are a priesthood holder, you can be included.

Holland never missed an opportunity to talk about inclusivity. What he doesn't want to admit is that he is prejudiced. In fact he hired three MO VP's (not two as someone mentioned earlier) without search. One of these VP's has only MBA!! Yes, he got rid of some non MO and replaced them with unqualified MO. Enough is enough!!!

It seems to me that the real question is not whether Olson is qualified or not, but does he match the advertised needs of the university? By advertised, I mean the official, publicly stated requirements of the position, rather some unofficial, not publicly stated needs. The fact that his degree is in law and UVU does not have a law program is somewhat bothersome. Usually, an administrator must have a home department within the university. This suggests that Olson has no intention of being anything other than an administrator – President Holland’s administrator. Certainly, Olson’s administrative experience is good for UVU, but was his experience better than the experience of Yells? This is debatable. Yells has not only been an excellent teacher, administrator and researcher while at UVU, he also has cultivated strong support among the faculty and staff at the university. The obvious difference between these two candidates seems to be in the area of religious preference. As stated, Olson is Mormon, while Yells is not. At BYU, being Mormon is a positive attribute. At UVU, a public university, this should not be taken into consideration. If religion was not a factor in this decision, then it must also be a coincidence that the recently appointed Vice President for Student Affairs (Taylor) and the position promotion of Vice President for Planning, Budget & Human Resources (Maikin) are Mormon and that the previous Senior Vice President (Wilson), also appointed, is also Mormon. Why did President Holland feel the need to conduct an extensive and exhaustive external search after appointing Wilson, Taylor and Maikin internally? Was it that President Holland was aware that the strongest internal candidate was Yells? What separates Yells from Wilson, Taylor and Maikin? The glaring different is religious affiliation. Olson happens to share the same religious affiliation as Wilson, Taylor and Maikin. So, it seems that there was a requirement for the position that was not advertised, not made public, because it would have violated Federal Law – an inclusion or exclusion based on religious affiliation. Maybe President Holland intends to become the President of BYU in the future and then he can continue this practice there, but at a public university (even in Utah) discrimination based on religious affiliation is against the law. This looks bad for UVU and it looks really bad for President Holland.

I had forgotten about Makin's promotion. At the same time she was promoted, her long-time assistant was promoted to Budget Director (Sweat) without any search.

I have worked on projects with both Makin and Sweat. Personally, I like and admire both of them and believe they have the institution's best interest at heart. When the downturn in student enrollment meant budget cuts, Makin was an advocate for protecting jobs (i.e. no reduction in force). Although, I will admit that they both have a disdainful attitude towards faculty who they seem to view as spoiled children.

Taylor, on the other hand, is viewed as a TBM Nazi. Word is that she trolls facebook and woe-be-unto anyone who posts something she doesn't like.

This has been a demoralizing event for many of the faculty and staff across campus. Even the Mormons on campus acknowledge the obvious - that Yells was not selected purely because he isn't Mormon and are as upset as the non-Mormon faculty and staff because they also think that people should advance based on their abilities and work record not because they belong to the exclusive group.

Sadly, I think this is going to result in an exodus of many brilliant and capable employees who have clearly been told that they (as non-Mormons) have a very limited future at UVU. If they have ambition to advance to the upper levels of academic administration, they will need to go somewhere else. I personally know three who have begun looking for other positions.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/09/2014 09:05AM by caedmon.

People at SUU have told me of 5 non-Mormon faculty members forced out. Three of them were active in another denomination.

What happen at SUU , I am about to graduate , and I hear something that some professors got fire

Another thing that has slipped under the radar at UVU, is the big increase in the executive salary scales.

The difference between the minimum for executive positions from 2014 to 2015 is $15,000 to $71,000 depending on the level.

This means a bump in the scale of 22%. While general faculty/staff are getting a 1.25% COLA. Not everyone in those positions will receive an actual increase (it depends on where they land on the scale), but in a time of budget cuts because of decreases in student enrollment it seems over-the-top.

You can check it out the salary scales for yourselves here:

http://www.uvu.edu/hr/compensation/index.html

Call his office and express your views on this. I did and it can make a difference. I have asks chis office for him to address this publicly and why this happened.

Wow, I have a lot to think about after reading things here I did not know about, things I hope are not true.

I attended DY's presentation as a candidate; for some reason I thought he was Mormon, but no matter--I didn't care for his presentation and felt he was pandering to faculty. I was unable to attend Olsen's presentation, but liked his CV.

As for Ian Wilson--he has served in his position with professionalism, integrity and temperance. I will miss him when he retires. I wish he'd stay.

As for Linda Makin--she serves with great dedication, isn't afraid to voice her opinion, and is a highly intelligent woman. She is a highly valued and respected member of the President's team. I'd venture to say their Mormonism has not gotten in the way of them serving the University.

Folks, just because someone is devout LDS doesn't mean they are not qualified for their jobs.

You are certainly entitled to your perspective but the search committee and the Academic Deans had a different opinion.

After the intial round of on-campus interviews, the committee wanted to put forward only one candidate's name - Yells. But Holland insisted they go back to the pool and give him a second name to consider. They did, but that individual wasn't a viable choice either. So again, they wanted to put forward only one candidate - Yells. Again, Holland insisted that they go back to the pool. That time Olson was brought to campus. After his round on interviews, the committee forwarded Olson and Yells for the President's consideration. However, the weight of their recommendation was strongly in favor of Yells. Plus the Academic Dean's were unanimous in their support of Yells.

I agree that Wilson and Makin have done a great job and are terrific individuals. Wilson will be missed on the campus. Makin has been tireless in her work for the university. Had their appointments to their positions gone through the open search process, I am certain they would have been selected.

As much as I disagree with the faculty and deans on their recommendation, it is dangerous to disenfranchise faculty in this manner. Not a good move on President Holland's part.

This is the man who prophecied that there would be temples dotting long island. (He was stake president there.) He had a vision of it. He intimated that it would happen in the next few years. (This was 15 years ago.) And then when baptisms didn't take off, he blamed the people for not working hard enough.

This man is creepy.Very creepy