As if he didn’t have enough problems on his plate, University of South Carolina president Robert Caslen is now facing criticism over a “rigged” hiring process for a key financial post in his administration.
The university posted an opening for the position of “chief operating officer” late last month – but removed the opening after less than a week. Specifically, the posting appeared on November 21 and was removed from the school’s website on November 27 – the day before Thanksgiving.
Take a look …
(Click to view)
(Via: University of South Carolina)
Thankfully, screen caps of the posting still exist – revealing the lengths to which the school went in order to shut down applications for this position.
“We are only accepting applications submitted by November 27, 2019,” the posting stated, adding that “after five business days positions can be closed at the discretion of the department.”
Also, while the posting indicated that South Carolina “does not discriminate in educational or employment opportunities on the basis of race, sex, gender, age, color, religion, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, genetics, protected veteran status, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions,” it clearly is discriminating on one key factor related to this job search.
“INTERNAL CANDIDATES ONLY TO APPLY,” the opening stated (emphasis original).
The definitional “inside job,” huh?
(Click to view)
(Via: University of South Carolina)
In other words, not only does the school clearly have someone in mind for this six-figure position – it wanted to make sure its sham “search” process was foisted on an unsuspecting public at a time when absolutely no one was paying attention.
So much for the school claiming to have learned its lesson following the fiasco of Caslen’s own hiring four-and-a-half months ago …
According to the job description, the new chief operating officer would provide the school with “strategic level operational or financial management as well as oversight for key organizational units or functions.” This would include “supervising critical operations, conducting comprehensive analysis” and acting on behalf of the school’s senior vice president for administration and finance “on certain matters related to human resources and or compensation.”
“Duties focus on organizational development, benchmarking, operational review, performance management, identifying trends, addressing financial or operational activities with a broad functional or organizational scope,” the deleted posting noted.
“Preferred qualifications” for the position include a “master’s degree in accounting, finance or business” with at least fifteen years experience in “financial management and reporting experience in higher education and healthcare environments.”
We have no idea who Caslen and his team (ahem) are looking to hire for this post, but several state lawmakers reached out to us expressing concern over this process – or rather the lack of a process.
-FITSNews
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