“Secret searches have to end.”

MUNSU and MUNFA agree, using corporate headhunters to hire the president of MUN has failed both the university and the community at large.

Questions around Vianne Timmons’ leadership of the province’s only university had been raised for some time, but came to a head in recent weeks amid questions around her claims of Indigenous heritage.

A decade ago, Timmons’ courted controversy as the former president of the University of Regina where questions were raised about spending, accountability and governance.

It’s been revealed that Timmons’ is entitled to a generous severance in excess of half a million dollars.

Memorial University Faculty Association President-elect Josh Lepawsky says the method used to hire Timmons and the details of her contract are cause for concern.

He claims “the hiring process was done essentially in secret, using private, executive search firms,” and a contract was written that “mirrors the sort of upper echelons of the corporate world, rather than a public university.” That, says Lepawsky, is “the bigger problem here… treating the public university as a corporation, has to end.”