The legislative body, Parliament, is keeping the public informed about the events taking place within its walls. - Currently, there are no openings on the University Medicine Executive Board.
Following the unsuccessful endeavor to appoint a scientific director at the University Medical Center, there won't be an immediate call for fresh applications. This directly came from Science Minister Clemens Hoch (SPD) in a special session of the Science Committee at the Rhineland-Palatinate State Parliament in Mainz on Wednesday. The focus will firstly be on examining adjustments to the recruitment process.
The current void in the position of scientific director at the largest hospital in Rhineland-Palatinate, where the state holds the largest share, has been a topic of conversation since this special session was requested by opposition factions of the CDU and the Free Voters.
The process to locate a successor for Ulrich Förstermann, who left in late March, has been ongoing for months. A prospective candidate had to withdrawal. Recently, the candidate endorsed by the board of directors at Unimedizin, former chief of the department for nephrology, rheumatology, and transplantation medicine at Unimedizin, Julia Weinmann-Menke, was declined by the faculty council. Presently, Hansjörg Schild, Interim Dean for Research, has taken on the role as an interim leader.
Union MP Gerd Schreiner declared in the committee that the responsibility for the vacancy lies solely with Minister Hoch. He inquired whether there had been sufficient communication from the ministerial side. Schreiner's fellow party member Matthias Reuber believes the process at Unimedizin has stalled. Furthermore, Reuber criticised the state's funding of research and teaching at Mainz Unimedizin being less than that of other university clinics. This places Rhineland-Palatinate at a competitive disadvantage. AfD MP Joachim Paul accused Hoch of failing to execute successful personnel management.
However, Minister Hoch insisted that the sums provided by the state for research and teaching at the Unimedizin have significantly grown in past years. Neither availability nor financial resources for research and teaching were the explanation behind the yet-empty director position. He confirmed that a remarkable pool of candidates was drawn from both selection processes. The position requires someone whom both the supervisory board and the faculty council trust.
University President: The Board is Working Seamlessly
The President of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Georg Krausch, underlined, "The truth is that we possess a fully operational board." He added, reflecting on the withdrawal of a candidate and looking at the latest rejection, "I would have preferred things differently; I'm being completely truthful."
The notion of reconsidering the recruitment process was already hinted at by Hoch at the beginning of May. They're currently assessing whether this process needs to be adjusted in order to swiftly and definitively make selections during vacancies, he shared at the time, highlighting the necessity for reliable research and teaching management and to prevent lengthy interim periods. At the start of May, the cabinet deliberated over a proposed amendment to the University Medical Law, the draft for which should continue to await the state parliament before the summer break.
In the Wednesday's committee, Minister Hoch mentioned it boiled down to making sure that premier candidates would not be tarnished if later rejected. Currently, applying the current procedure with the events concerning Weinmann-Menke is already challenging, as trust in the process has been lost.
Notification: The invitation to the meeting dated May 7, 2024 from the Ministry of Science.
