The Working Group for Equal Opportunities had lodged an objection to the Senate’s selection. Now the arbitration committee of the university should ensure that there is no suspicion of discrimination. However, the decision originally announced for today has been delayed; according to the university, it should be available by the end of next week. According to the university’s website, the arbitration commission held talks with the working group and the Senate before Easter. The next steps are set in such a way that a list of three can be sent to the University Council by the end of next week. “Everyone feels obliged to appoint a rector as soon as possible.” The original schedule should still hold, the election by the university council is still planned for the beginning of May. However, the Senate and the working group could still appeal to the Federal Administrative Court against the decision of the Arbitration Commission.
The Senate’s three-person proposal are the psychologist and current Rector of the University of Klagenfurt, Oliver Vitouch, the educational psychologist and current Dean of the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Vienna, Barbara Schober, and Sebastian Schütze (Dean of the Historical and Cultural Sciences Faculty of the University of Vienna). Formally, however, the three-way proposal is only available after approval by the working group. The Unirat then elects the new rector from the three candidates proposed by the Senate.
Most recently, five candidates were still in the running to succeed Engl, who will resign from office in September, a year earlier than planned: In addition to Vitouch and Schober, the Senate invited three other in-house candidates to the hearing: Dean Schütze, Gerhard Ecker (Dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences) and Veronika Somoza (Deputy Head of the Institute for Physiological Chemistry at the Chemistry Faculty). Vitouch, Schober and Schütze were finally put on the Senate’s three-way proposal, as the APA was confirmed by several parties.
Originally, 17 people had applied for the office. In addition to Vitouch and Schober, the selection committee appointed by the University Council and Senate also put the German physician Matthias H. Tschöp, scientific director at the Helmholtz Zentrum München, on their list of three. However, the latter had decided not to take part in the Senate hearing at short notice, as the fact that the Senate nominated only internal candidates had reportedly made him doubt his interest in an application from abroad. Another external candidate is said to have declined an invitation.
Source: Nachrichten
