1) What is your assessment of the college's affirmation action attempts to recruit African American candidates?

2) How should president Jones response to perceptions and rumors?

3) Are the concerns about Dr. Wright's sexual preference a valid consideration?

4) Should President Jones discuss the search committee's suspicious with Dr. Wright's current employers-Why/Why not/

5) What are the legal ramifications in this case-and support ramifications.

Problem:

James Jones is president of Oceanside College a small private liberal arts college in south Florida. With the expectation of the Vice president fro Administration who is hispanic, all the senior administration at Oceanside are white.

The college's Vice president for Student Affairs and Dean of Students is due to retire at the end of the semester. President Jones established a search committe and charged them to make every attempt to recruit African-American candidates for this position. in addition to advertising the position in the "Chronicle of Higher education", the search committee placed advertisements in the newsletter of the Association of Minority Deans, and in the Minority Faculty Data Bank.

After sitting through dozens of resumes, reading many letters of recommentation and conducting countless telephone interviews. This candidate Dr. Wright, was the only African-American applicant to met all the experience and educational qualifications specified by the search committee.Dr. Wright has an impressive resume and has held a similar position at a prestigious college in the north-east for the past eight years. On paper, he was by far the most suitable applicant for the position. When contacted by phone, he indicated that he was tired of the long cold winters, and wished to move south.

April 3
Dr. Wright has just spent two days at oceanside meeting with a variety of faculty, administrators and students. After he had left campus, president Jones began receiving reviews from the various people who had interviewed Dr. Wright. The written reports were unanimous in their assessment that Dr. Jones was an outstanding candidates with impeccable credentials. When questioned privately, several of the administrators and faculty, and all of the students who had met Dr. Wright indicated that they suspended that he was gay.

Normally, President Jones would have responded "SO WHAT? But this time he listened to the suspicious differently. Just a few months ago, a history professor at Oceanside College Luis Firenze had died from AIDS. Professor Firenza had make no secret of his sexual preference, and there were always rumors, never substantiated, that students were were included among his partners.

A confidential memofrandum from the vice president for administration indicated that the college's medical insurance carrier had paid nearly $200,000 in medical and hospital bills related to Professor firenze's treatment. Last week, President Jones learned that a student is claiming that he contacted AIDS from professor Firenze and that his parents were planning to sue the college.

President Jones decided to wait until all the finalists had visited campus and he had the recommendations of the search committee members.

April 26
today, the Vice President for the Student Affairs and Dean of students Search Committee has concluded its on-campus interviews of the finalists. The remaining four candidates were good and it appears that they would each do a good job if chosen for the position. However, it was obvious to the committee members and to President Jones that more of them measured up to Dr. Wright in terms of expererience, qualifications, and potential to be an outstanding Dean of Students at Oceanside College.

Next week, president Jones will be attending the annual conference of the Independent Colleges and Universities Association. this conference is attended by presidents and senior administrators of private colleges from across the country. he knows that the president to the college where Josiah Wright is currently employed will also be attending the conference.