Finalists for top job at UMass Amherst head to campus

At UMass Amherst on Friday, one of two finalists in the search for a new chancellor will be on campus. As we've reported, Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy plans to retire this summer after 11 years leading the university.

One candidate, Paul Tikalsky, is in Amherst on Friday. He's the dean of the college of engineering at Oklahoma State University. The next week,Javier Reyes will visit. He's currently the interim chancellor at the University of Illinois Chicago.

Carrie Healy, NEPM: What do we know about the finalists beyond their current roles? Since Paul Tikalsky will be in western Massachusetts on Friday, we can start with him. What's his background?

Jill Kaufman, NEPM: Well, Tikalsky is a civil engineer by training, so it's a career of engineering, sustainable buildings and energy solutions. As a dean at Oklahoma State, his bio says he's worked with a lot of faculty to redefine their workloads. He also touts his work on diversity and inclusion programs in the field of engineering. And he's been in Oklahoma for about 10 or 11 years.

And he was recently a finalist for the job of chancellor at UMass Lowell?

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Yeah, that was just last spring. And Carrie, he's been applying for quite a few chancellor or president jobs at schools in recent years. In several, he's gotten pretty far in the process. Tikalsky was a finalist at the University of North Dakota in spring 2019, and in the same year he was a finalist at the University of Idaho. He also applied for the top job at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.

And we know all this from news clips because these searches for top state university jobs can be pretty public.

And Javier Reyes, University of Illinois Chicago interim chancellor, is in town on Monday. What can you tell us about his background?

He's been in that role for just this school year. And prior to that, in 2021, he arrived in Chicago to be the provost and the vice chancellor for academics. Reyes has a doctorate in economics. He was a research analyst for an investment firm, and he could have gone into banking or business, but he chose the academic life. And before UIC, he was dean of the business college at West Virginia University, and he was a vice provost at the University of Arkansas starting around 2012.

The next UMass chancellor is running a school with a largely unionized workforce. Last month in Chicago, Reyes was bargaining with the faculty union there and teachers went out on strike. What happened?

Well, a tentative agreement was reached that brought to a pretty quick end this teacher walkout. But the faculty union had gone on strike over pay. That was for non-tenured teachers, also for more job protection,

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According to WBEZ/Sun-Times, Reyes told the school community that while the university recognized the union's right to strike, the work stoppage was "disappointing and not in the best interest of the university or students."

OK, 108 people applied for the chancellor job at UMass Amherst, but these two candidates came out of a pool of a select 26. The search committee whittled this down to 12, and then 2. Who makes the decision now?

So the very final decision will come from the UMass president, Marty Meehan, and the board of trustees. But over the last few months, the search committee has been meeting with different parts of the school community and that includes students.

And, at a public meeting covered by the Daily Collegian, students told the committee the next chancellor needs to pay attention to housing and parking and dining services, especially if so many students are going to be accepted. One student said they felt that Subbaswamy prioritized students and they wanted to see that continue with whomever is hired.

And will someone be hired? Is the search process with these candidates a done deal or could UMass end up with an interim chancellor?

Well, theoretically, there could be an interim chancellor, but a UMass spokesperson said that Chancellor Subbaswamy gave a year's notice. And that gave the search committee a lot of lead time.

And and while it is possible, Carrie, that the chosen candidate could say, "Thanks, no thanks" to an offer, the spokesperson said at this stage, UMass is in a good position to finish up the search.

And how much does this job pay?

Well, right now, Subbaswamy has a base salary of $514,101. That's according to the state. This is the top leadership position on the Amherst campus. But he actually makes a little less than his director of athletics (at $535,806) and a lot less than the UMass men's basketball coach (more than $1 million) and football coach ($816,000).

Disclosure: The license for NEPM's main radio signal is held by UMass Amherst. Our newsroom operates independently.