Page 150 - Through the gate of the neoliberal academy • Herschberg

148 CHAPTER 5
between committee members. Firstly, in hindsight some men committee members regretted that Brian was ranked number 3. Jeff wrote that this happened “partly for tactical reasons” (making a case for both hiring Nicholas and Laura), and he argued that he himself and some other members thought that Brian should be ranked first. Secondly, Martin was the first to suggest that the ranking should be changed.
Further I would state more clearly that Nicholas and Brian are ranked as being the two top-candidates, and that Laura, though the strongest female candidate in this round, is viewed as being not quite at that level. We should make it clear to the dean that there is a distinction.
Martin pled in his e-mail for a re-ranking, putting Laura on the third place. He devalued Laura’s quality in comparison to the two men candidates, even though this was not argued during the face-to-face deliberation. His message also shows how the political game is being played, involving the dean. Martin, but also other committee members, referred to the dean as they tried to anticipate his decision on whom to give a job offer. Anna replied to Martin’s e-mail that she did “not agree with any re- ranking of the candidates.” Nevertheless, in the draft of the appointment report that followed, Laura was ranked third and Brian second.
An e-mail message from Stephen, that accompanied the draft of the appointment report, showed that they had realized that ranking Laura second, could actually result in the appointment of Laura and not Nicholas nor Brian.
On the one hand, the dean has the possibility to overrule the ranking of the committee (it is officially only an ‘advisory commission’), thus putting Laura between two strong candidates of similar quality (Nicholas and Brian) there is a chance (regarded as realistic by the director) that the dean might simply appoint Laura instead of Nicholas. Furthermore, we only have a single position to fill, so the report must make clear that it would be an extra initiative of the faculty to create an additional position here for some specific reason (namely for a female candidate).
In hindsight I have to admit that the discussion after the interviews focused probably a bit too much on the option to appoint two candidates, of which one female. Given all the uncertainties about this option, we didn’t explicitly formulate a simple ranking for the single position. However, from the reactions to the summary [of the meeting] it clearly emerged that a majority of the committee sees Brian ahead of Laura.