UVM Must Conduct a National Search for the Vice Provost for Student Affairs and Any Other Positions That Were Recently Filled by Appointment
Patricia Prelock, Provost, UVM
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In his letter from the Birmingham Jail, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reminds us that “History is the long and tragic story of the fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily.” He continues by stating that “we know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
One of UVM Staff United’s key bargaining positions remains the commitment to diversity and equity in hiring, promotions, and retention provisions. Recent appointments of key positions of power, in the absence of any national job search, disregard this commitment and only seek to perpetuate the processes at UVM by which the privileged hold on to power.
Today is a day we honor the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. through action. Please take the small action of interrupting current practices at UVM that perpetuate the systematic exclusion of BIPOC candidates from critical searches by signing this petition.
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Sponsored by
To:
Patricia Prelock, Provost, UVM
From:
[Your Name]
We, the undersigned, hereby express our opposition to the recent appointment of the Vice Provost for Student Affairs announced by Provost Patricia Prelock in her December 6, 2021 e-mail. This announcement contradicts Provost Prelock’s previous commitment to conduct a national search before permanently filling the position. Such appointments are in disregard of the standard processes by which position vacancies are filled at all levels of employment at the University of Vermont.
The act of white people in positions of power at this university merely appointing other white people to similar positions of power only perpetuates the processes by which white people take and maintain control. This is the perpetuation of white supremacy in action. Provost Prelock made this unilateral decision with an announcement that was strategically delivered just days prior to the long winter break, a period of time in which campus news cycles tend to reset
Countless UVM employees as well as others who seek to join the UVM community have participated in numerous searches for positions, have progressed through the appropriate protocols, have finished the process feeling good about having had the opportunity to present their qualifications, and remained confident that the search committee did their due diligence to recruit, interview, and select the most qualified candidate.
Provost Prelock’s recently announced appointment disregards these well-articulated protocols. It is beyond frustrating to see high level positions that wield remarkable influence over the direction of this institution simply handed out without a national search. The frustration is only compounded when those actions are steeped in the perpetuation of white supremacy.
That the University of Vermont remains an overwhelmingly white institution is not an accident. It has become commonplace and perennial to state that our institution is in dire need of staff members from under-represented demographics. It’s important to realize, however, the critical distinction between being under-represented and being systematically excluded.
Under-representation happens as a direct result of exclusion by people in power. The process by which a white person in a position of power appoints another white person to a similar position of power, without even attempting to recruit expertise from a national search, is the systematic exclusion of anyone who would have possibly sought to serve our campus community from a perspective that may not already exist here.
With this petition, we call for an interruption to the process by which Provost Prelock has recently appointed the Vice Provost for Student Affairs, for the UVM Department of Human Resource Services to identify other recent instances where such appointments may have occurred, and then demand that any identified positions be filled only after a national search for the most qualified candidates has been completed.