Beginning in the Fall, the Provost and Vice-President, Academic will be chairing a committee struck under the Policy on the Appointment of Academic Administrators to advise on the appointment of a University Librarian. Nicole Nolan is currently serving in the role on an interim basis.

The Provost and Vice-President, Academic is seeking nominations for members to serve on the advisory committee. Faculty and professional librarian nominations will be recommended to the Provost by the Senate Governance Committee.

Under the Appointment Procedures for Academic Administrators, the advisory committee will include:

• At least four full-time permanent librarians from different areas of the Library
• At least one permanent staff member from the Library, noting that staff members reporting directly to the University Librarian are not eligible to serve
• At least one full-time tenured faculty member, to be recommended by the Governance Committee to Senate
• At least one Dean, to be recommended by the Committee of Academic Deans
• One undergraduate student from the appropriate Faculty, to be recommended by the Brock University Students’ Union
• One graduate student from the appropriate Faculty, to be recommended by the Graduate Students’ Associate

Individuals may nominate themselves or be nominated by another person. Each nomination must include a clear indication that the nominee has accepted the nomination and is willing to serve on the Advisory Committee. In addition, nominees must provide a statement (200 words or less) of why they are interested in serving on the committee and why they believe they should be selected to serve.

All nominees must be able to serve on the Advisory Committee in an impartial manner, with an open mind, and without having prejudged the outcome. University decision-making processes are subject to rules of procedural fairness. One of these rules is that decision-making processes must be fair and impartial and must not be tainted by a reasonable apprehension of bias.

Consequently, all individuals who serve on advisory committees must be able to carry out their responsibilities in a fair and impartial manner. This responsibility does not require that advisory committee members have given no prior thought to and formed no opinion about the issues before them. Rather, they must not have a predisposition or state of mind which renders them unable to approach the issues with an open mind. If a reasonable person would conclude that an advisory committee member would be unable to carry out their responsibilities with an open mind and had prejudged what the outcome should be, then a reasonable apprehension of bias would arise, and the member may be disqualified from participating in the advisory committee process.

The deadline for nominations is 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, August 30, 2023.

Faculty and professional librarian nominations can be submitted online at https://brocku.ca/university-secretariat/committee-nominations/advisory-committee-form/.

Staff nominations can be submitted online at https://brocku.ca/vp-academic/advisory-committee-nomination-form/