Perlman has new job for deputy

LINCOLN — Chancellor Harvey Perlman wants to tap his chief of staff, Susan Poser, as a fast-track replacement for the vice chancellor of academic affairs.

That vice chancellor is the chief academic officer at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Since 2004, the job has been held by Barbara Couture, who last week was chosen as president of New Mexico State University. Couture will start her new job Jan. 1 and be paid $385,000 annually.

Perlman did not criticize Couture, but he said her quick departure leaves UNL in a vulnerable position.

The university already is searching to replace three academic deans and Vice Chancellor John Owens, who heads the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

“Some candidates already are asking questions about the stability of the campus administration,” Perlman said in a memo Monday to faculty and staff.

The questions are intensified by pending budget cuts and Perlman's own age and tenure. Perlman, 67, has served 10 years at the UNL helm.

“I have no intention to retire at this point (I'm sure this will come as a disappointment to some), but it's hard to convince the world at large,” he wrote.

Poser is a law professor who holds a doctorate in jurisprudence and social policy from the University of California, Berkeley.

She has been associated with UNL since 1994, when she served as a visiting assistant professor, and has been on the faculty since 1999.

She became chief of staff and associate to the chancellor in 2007.

Perlman said it could take up to 18 months to replace Couture under normal search processes.

He said filling the job on an interim basis or tapping a current dean for the post will resolve his concerns about administrative stability.

Perlman said he would create a committee of the Faculty Senate executive board, two deans and two students to interview Poser next week. That panel will decide whether to forward Poser's name for the appointment.

Perlman said Poser has agreed to undergo a rigorous performance evaluation after three years, instead of the customary five-year evaluation. He said he believes Poser is the “right person at the right time.”

“Will she be a tool of the chancellor? Anyone who has been around this office the last few years knows the answer to that is a resounding ‘no,'” he said.

“She has always offered me advice, even advice I did not want to hear, and in too many occasions she was right.”

David Rapkin, a political science professor who serves on the Faculty Senate's executive board, said faculty members have some discomfort about the unusual selection procedure.

Rapkin said, however, they seem generally supportive of the idea because of Poser's “excellent reputation” and because of growing concern about five key jobs being vacant at UNL.

“We need to fill at least one of the holes quickly,” Rapkin said.

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