The problem with Wits’s transparent process for choosing a new vice-chancellor is that there was no Plan B
Mungo Soggot
THE bombshell which Sam Nolutshungu dropped on the University of the Witwatersrand this week – that he would not take up the post of vice-chancellor – had as much to do with his nerve as his health.
Friends of the enigmatic United States- based political science professor say he had grown increasingly anxious that the post – vaunted as the toughest job in South African tertiary education – was beyond him.
Both Nolutshungu and Wits have officially pinned his decision only on health. But Nolutshungu (51), who avoided inquiries from the Mail & Guardian, this week told the Democrat and Chronicle, his local paper in Rochester, New York, that he is “not that sick or crippled. I just don’t feel robust enough for the job.”
He added, “My health circumstances have changed since I visited South Africa.”
But he is not quitting the University of Rochester, where he is interim director of the Frederick Douglass Institute for Afro- American Studies.
Wits, meanwhile, facing possibly the biggest crisis in its 75-year history, is unsure what to do next. The elaborate selection process, designed to appease all the university’s constituencies, including the radical South African Students’ Congress, was lauded at the time as a model for transparent recruitment.
But it was not accompanied by a Plan B. Insiders struggled this week to name possible replacements. “If Nolutshungu doesn’t want it why should anyone else?” asked a senior academic. Another said Wits is now “in a state of political paralysis”.
Nolutshungu’s victory in October in the contest to succeed Robert Charlton was hailed as a breakthrough for the troubled university. After 31 years abroad, Nolutshungu was an outside candidate – until the day he charmed the campus with a witty public presentation on why he should have the job. Since then Nolutshungu has been toasted as the best and probably only choice, particularly by Wits.
The administration, however, neglected to make clear that Nolutshungu had never signed on the dotted line – Nolutshungu and Wits were still negotiating his package late last month. It also emerged this week that Wits was supposed to have put Nolutshungu through a medical examination before handing him the job.
The selection rules say the new man should be “industrious, energetic and in good health”. It is understood the panel which discussed the clause suggested the chosen candidate be examined. Nolutshungu was not, however, examined.
It is not the first time Nolutshungu has jilted Wits. He was offered a deputy vice- chancellorship in 1992, which he turned down. He was supposed to start shadowing Charlton in June this year before taking over next year.
Friends and colleagues say that apart from health troubles, Nolutshungu had grown increasingly daunted by the factious, politically charged environment at Wits. It is understood many in the academic world warned him of the dangers of the job. Nolutshungu was also uncomfortable being in the public eye. He has also put down deep roots in Rochester.
When he returned to South Africa in December, Nolutshungu was deeply troubled by the university’s finances – in particular the government’s decision to cut its subsidy by R36-million – and by the exodus of top staff.
Insiders fear it will be very difficult to find a replacement. It is unlikely the two candidates who were beaten by Nolutshungu – the former vice-principal and deputy vice- chancellor, June Sinclair, and the one-time favourite, the University of the North Vice-Chancellor, Njabulo Ndebele – would want the job, even if Wits wanted them.
Sources say there is no clear indication who could take Nolutshungu’s place. “It is too early to think about people … we first have to come up with a process,” said one selection committee member.
Some say it would be damaging to repeat the “exhausting and time-consuming” process – one Nolutshungu described in November as “long, cumbersome and tiresome”. But others say there is no option if the university wants to avoid a full-blown crisis.
Co-chair of Wits’s transformation task team, Professor Shadrack Gutto, said this week that Wits was not yet sure how to appoint a replacement.
He conceded the university should have made it clearer last year that Nolutshungu had only been offered the job and had not yet accepted.
“But you have to understand the mood of the institution at the time. People wanted to know if Nolutshungu would be starting tomorrow. It was not a normal process … special situations were prevailing and we were carried away.”
Gutto said that after completing the selection process – “the most transparent ever” – there was no question the winning man, Nolutshungu, would pull out.
He said he was sure Nolutshungu himself had appreciated the special nature and enormous challenge of the job. But he said the university would probably need to “bring it [the challenge of the job] out more in the next interview process. We will have to make it more explicit.”
Gutto said the most immediate problem facing the university was the appointment of three deputy vice-chancellors by the end of the year – a process Nolutshungu was supposed to have been involved in to help appease all parties.
Gutto was confident a replacement would be found. He said now that the selection procedure had been tested and had been shown to work, more potential candidates would come forward.
Ndebele could not be reached for comment but Sinclair, whose contract as deputy vice-chancellor in charge of student affairs ended in December, said she would consider the post if offered it, as one of several options before her.
Another option she is considering, according to elite Johannesburg school, Crawford College, is to guide its plans to set up an “Ivy League” university in Sandown. Sinclair confirms she has had talks with Crawford.