American Association of University Professors @ Colorado State University

Read about faculty concerns about the Colorado State System Chancellor search in the Rocky Mountain Collegian.

“(This) suggests that Dr. Frank is, in fact, naming a successor rather than conducting an objective search for a new chancellor to lead the CSU system,” the AAUP’s letter reads. “It is part of a broader pattern of administrative behavior that includes the presidential ‘searches’ for CSU-Fort Collins and CSU-Pueblo, both of which resulted in the appointment of people close to the current chancellor with little to no input from stakeholders in the broader university communities. The latter, it should be noted, ultimately resulted in major embarrassment to the system. The current situation cannot be attributed to ignorance of national precedents or the best practices outlined by AAUP; Dr. Frank and the BOG have been informed in the past about the problematic nature of this course of action by local AAUP chapters and, in the case of Pueblo, also by the national AAUP Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure and Governance.”

“This is the second time in half a year that I’ve been compelled to attend the Board of Governors meeting to voice my concerns about blatant disregard for the principles of shared governance and egregious disrespect shown to the faculty staff and students of CSU,” Munsky said in public comment. “Last September, it was about illegal and draconian changes in the free speech policy, and today it is about an embarrassing and shamefully inappropriate search for the next chancellor of the CSU System. There needs to be a full external search. The Colorado State System is a public institution that serves almost 50,000 students and employs over 7,500 faculty and staff. We deserve a chancellor who has undergone a rigorous selection process that is based on nationally recognized best practices.”

Colorado Public Radio covers the concerns that AAUP faculty have about the “closed door” process to select the next Chancellor of the Colorado State system.

“This begs the question of who, exactly, is making the selection,” wrote Mary Van Buren, president of the Fort Collins chapter of the American Association of University Professors in a strongly worded letter to the board. “All of the above suggests that Dr. Frank is, in fact, naming a successor rather than conducting an objective search.”

Read the full article here.

The Administrative Professional Council (APC) and the Multicultural Staff and Faculty Council Board (MSFC) at Colorado State University both joined the Faculty Council and the AAUP in protesting the inappropriate process by which CSU conducted the search for a new Chancellor.

The APC write (read the full letter here):

Administrative Professionals play a critical role in advancing the land-grant mission of CSU and in sustaining the daily operations, institutional knowledge, and long-term stability of our campuses. As such, APC strongly supports the principles of shared governance articulated in the Academic Faculty & Administrative Professional Manual, including transparency, accountability, meaningful participation, and respect for established
processes in institutional decision-making.

Trust in leadership processes is essential. The current Chancellor search process, as described, raises concerns about inclusivity, transparency, and alignment with best practices.

The Fort Collins APC joins Faculty Council in urging the Board of Governors to reconsider and modify the current search process to ensure it reflects the values of shared governance and incorporates meaningful input from across the CSU community. Modifying the search process will go a long way to restoring confidence and strengthening institutional trust while securing the leadership needed to guide CSU through its present
and future challenges.

We appreciate the responsibility entrusted to the Board of Governors and respectfully ask that you consider the best interests of the entire CSU System by ensuring an inclusive and transparent Chancellor search process.

The MSFC write (read the full letter here):

The Multicultural Staff and Faculty Council (MSFC) has been at Colorado State University since the 1970s. MSFC’s mission is to serve as a catalyst to meaningfully impact campus climate and culture by supporting the recruitment, retention, and development of multicultural and diverse employees. We are committed to promoting
collaboration and accountability through visible and meaningful engagement with Colorado State University and the greater community.

We, the MSFC Board, have significant concerns about the nature of the search process for our next Chancellor. Specifically, we are concerned that:

• The search for our next Chancellor is limited to applicants currently affiliated with the CSU System. An internal search limits our ability to recruit a diverse applicant pool and identify the best candidate.
• The Search Advisory Committee is composed only of the voting members of the Board of Governors or the Evaluation Committee. This decision to exclude input from the greater campus community does not support our University’s fundamental value of shared governance and conflicts with MSFC’s commitment to promoting collaboration, accountability, and integrity.
• To our knowledge, the Search Advisory Committee has not reached out to staff, faculty, or students to solicit input on the values and experience needed in the next Chancellor. It is concerning that someone could be hired to make decisions about us and for us without knowing what is important to us.
• There are possible unethical practices and conflicts of interest pertaining to the Chancellor search, in violation of the Board of Governors Bylaws and Ethics Policy.
  

We urge the Board to address the concerns outlined in this letter and in the letter sent by the Faculty Council. The current search process’s limited applicant pool, expedited timeline, and absence of multiple voices from the more than 10,000 employees and over 34,000 students (in addition to other System campuses and institutions) in the decision- making process is alarming and gives the impression that the outcome is predetermined. We request that the Board adopt a more transparent and ethical search process by conducting a national search that integrates employee participation and prioritizes community engagement.

The Fort Collins chapter of the American Association of University Professors sent the following letter to the Colorado State System Board of Governors on February 4, 2026. We are gravely concerned about the process by which the new chancellor of the Colorado State System was being selected. Download a PDF of the letter here.

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AAUP – Colorado State University – Fort Collins

February 4, 2026

Dear Board Members,

We are writing to express our grave concern about the procedure you have implemented for selecting a new chancellor. The selection process was outlined in the December 18, 2025 statement by the Board of Governors and is problematic for the following reasons:

• The search for the highest ranking administrator in the CSU system is internal rather than being open to the most qualified candidate.

• There is no independent search committee. The December 18 memo states that “the Board of Governors Evaluation Committee will serve as the advisory committee for this search.” This begs the question of who, exactly, is making the selection. The current chancellor? That would seem to be the case given that applicants are instructed to send their materials directly to his office, not to the BOG or an independent body.

• There is no participation by faculty or other affected parties. This contravenes AAUP guidance as well as CSU’s stated commitment to shared governance.

• The search was announced immediately before the winter break and specified a deadline just six weeks later. This very short turn-around time – that occurred between Faculty Council meetings — made it difficult for the university community to respond to the way in which the search was being conducted. The accelerated timeline is particularly unreasonable given that Dr. Frank is not retiring until June of 2027.

All of the above suggests that Dr. Frank is, in fact, naming a successor rather than conducting an objective search for a new chancellor to lead the CSU system. It is part of a broader pattern of administrative behavior that includes the presidential “searches” for CSU- Fort Collins and CSU-Pueblo, both of which resulted in the appointment of people close to the current chancellor with little to no input from stakeholders in the broader university communities. The latter, it should be noted, ultimately resulted in major embarrassment to the system. The current situation cannot be attributed to ignorance of national precedents or the best practices outlined by AAUP; Dr. Frank and the BOG have been informed in the past about the problematic nature of this course of action by local AAUP chapters, and, in the case of Pueblo, also by the national AAUP Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure, and Governance.

The Colorado State System is a public institution that serves almost 50,000 students and employs over 7,500 faculty and staff. We deserve a chancellor who has undergone a rigorous selection process that is based on nationally recognized best practices.

We respectfully request that a new search be implemented so that a national pool of qualified candidates can be reviewed by a committee that includes faculty, among other stakeholders, subject, of course, to final Board approval.

Sincerely,

Mary Van Buren

President, American Association of University Professors – Fort Collins

On behalf of the Executive Committee of AAUP@CSU

On February 3, 2026, the CSU Faculty Council voted by an overwhelming majority to protest the process for the selection of the next Chancellor of the Colorado State System. Read the letter here. The full text is also below:

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Dear Board of Governors,

For more than a century, the Faculty Council of Colorado State University has been a steadfast defender of shared governance as a cornerstone of effective and ethical institutional leadership. Broad, informed, and participatory decision-making processes are fundamental democratic values reflected in the established governance structures at CSU and at other higher education institutions across the nation. Further, principles such as the separation of powers, transparency in decision-making, respect for established procedures, and accountability are central to the land-grant mission at institutions like CSU and form the foundation of our shared governance system.

Over the past decade, our institution has been in turmoil. We have experienced repeated leadership transitions that have significantly eroded morale among faculty, administrative staff, students, and alumni. President Frank (2008–2018) presided over a period of financial expansion and relative stability, leading to the abbreviated tenures of President McConnell (2019–2022), Interim-President Miranda (2022), and now to the current presidency of President Parsons (2023–present). The changes in chief executive leadership have corresponded with multiple changes at the provost level as well (Miranda, Pedersen, Nerger, Underwood, Youngblade). These rapid shifts in leadership have coincided with financial contraction and have created instability and uncertainty across the institution. Today, CSU is facing its most severe financial challenge since the Great Recession, leaving units to wrestle with planning for 8-10% budget reductions. While these hardships are shaped in part by broader federal and state-level conditions, they are also the direct result of financial decisions made by University and System-level leadership, with limited engagement from faculty and staff.

Amid these financial challenges, we are now facing another transition in leadership as the CSU community was recently informed of the initiation of a search for a new Chancellor. We, the faculty, have significant concerns about the nature of the search process. Specifically, we are concerned that:

• The search for our next Chancellor is limited to applicants currently affiliated with the CSU System. An internal search, for a position of this magnitude, is not only misaligned with institutional peers, and limits our ability to identify the best candidate. Furthermore, it fosters an impression that the slate of potential candidates is already determined.

• We have extreme concerns that the Search Advisory Committee is composed only of the voting members of the Board of Governors, or the Evaluation Committee. Again, this process is misaligned with institutional peers and neglects the essential input from the larger campus and system community. This reinforces the impression that the outcome is pre-determined.

• To our knowledge, the search advisory committee has not consulted with students, faculty, staff, or administrators about what attributes they need in the next chancellor. The search advisory committee did not include any of the faculty or student representatives to the Board from our three campuses.

• It is exceptionally concerning that the current Chancellor appears to be soliciting applications for the position, superseding the Evaluation Committee Chair or Board Chair. As the current Chancellor would have affiliations with any internal candidates, this represents a direct conflict of interest.

The process outlined by the Board of Governors to identify the next Chancellor of the CSU System runs counter to the values and expectations of shared governance described in the Academic Faculty & Administrative Professional Manual, on the CSU website (https://webcms3.colostate.edu/about/shared-governance/), and implicitly supported by university administration. It is critical that our institutions uphold these values. The absence of meaningful public engagement, the lack of a national search, and the implementation of an unnecessarily expedited timeline risk excluding highly qualified candidates and may foster perceptions of favoritism or nepotism. Such practices further undermine trust in institutional leadership and weaken the shared governance framework that has long defined Colorado State University.

As the state-appointed stewards of our institution and mission, the Chancellor search process is an affront to the commitment you have made to make decisions in the best interest of the Colorado State University System on behalf of its faculty, staff, and students. Against the backdrop of extreme and system-wide financial strain and diminished morale, the consequences of this decision in the hands of the Board of Governors will be felt for decades. The decision made by the board can serve to strengthen our institutions and System or weaken it and threaten our shared future.

Board members, we urge you to maintain your commitment to the best interest of Colorado State University and ensure an ethical, transparent, and robust search for our next Chancellor. We cannot risk a process that further undermines trust, weakens our shared governance framework, or jeopardizes the future of the CSU System. We implore you to modify the search process in recognition of these concerns.

With respect and hope,

Faculty Council Executive Committee

AAUP-CSU’s February newsletter is out (click here)! This month’s newsletter talks about the spring initiatives we need YOUR help with, announces a new day and time for our general meetings, and shares an article that urges universities to develop new strategies for dealing with growing authoritarian threats. Please share this newsletter with your colleagues and come to our monthly meeting on Monday, Feb 2, 4:00-5:00pm in the Ramskeller.

Faculty councils across Colorado have voted to form a mutual defense compact to protect public colleges and universities from federal attacks. As the Trump administration seeks to reshape American higher education, “faculty councils, AAUP chapters, and student organizations across the state are going to continue to act in concert to communicate and oppose these changes,” says AAUP-CSU President Mary Van Buren. “But it’s up to the [university] administrations to really make this effective.”

Read the full Chalkbeat story here.

AAUP-CSU’s November 2025 Newsletter is now available (click here!). Get the details for the the AAUP Day of Higher Ed this Friday, Nov. 7. We’re participating in a student demonstration and hosting a free screening of The Librarians. You can also read about our recent actions on campus and in the community, see the results of a recent national poll to see how people feel about the Trump administration’s interference with higher ed (spoiler alert: people don’t support it!), and learn about resources available to members of AAUP National. Please distribute the newsletter to all your colleagues, friends, and family and join us at this Wednesday’s (Nov. 5) general meeting, 4:30-5:30 pm, at Avogadro’s Number.