By Michael Napolitano

The math department’s goal to hire new professors has been slowed by Provost Stephen Director’s reevaluation of the hiring process and funding limitations, interim Math Chair Robert McOwen said.

McOwen said the reevaluation has slowed developments that had already been “slightly disrupted” by the resignation of former Math Chair David Massey. In particular, interdisciplinary and applied math professors are a valuable commodity into which Northeastern has been trying to tap.

The university needs these kinds of professors, McOwen said in the June 18 edition of the Northeastern News, in order to interact better with other research at the university.

“We had one in process when [Massey] resigned, and that one has not gone through,” he said this week in an interview with The News. “I can’t honestly attribute it to [Massey] having to resign. … Nothing has developed, probably because of other changes like a new provost and funding.”

McOwen said that with a new provost, who began July 1, came a reevaluation of what he considered an unusual hiring process that had been implemented by former Provost Ahmed Abdelal.

“It was handled [by Abdelal] in an unusual way, as more of an opportunity hire, like, here’s an individual that would be really good,” he said.

Though math department hirings have slowed, the university recently hired 50 new professors as part of a years-long initiative started by former Northeastern President Richard Freeland.

McOwen said potential professors were targeted by Abdelal and “funded directly by the Provost’s Office,” and the school wwill then determine if the potential employee will fit into an open position.

“Director came in and said we should reevaluate,” he said, calling his decision a “reasonable thing to do.”

“I think he’s changing that process. I think he’s making it a little more regular. … Now they’ll be more of a regular process where a position is developed to serve a certain need, and an individual is sought for that. Funding will be more regular as well.”

Interim university spokesperson Jim Chiavelli declined to comment on behalf of professor Thomas Sherman, Provost Stephen Director, former dean of the College of Arts and Sciences James Stellar and dean and director of the Office of Affirmative Action and Diversity Donnie Perkins.

Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Bruce Ronkin, who replaced former Dean Jim Stellar, also declined to comment.

Massey was suspended March 3 after an undisclosed complaint was filed against him through the Office of Affirmative Action and Diversity, as was first reported in an April 14 issue of the Northeastern News.

While McOwen said in the June 18 edition of the Northeastern News that Massey’s sudden suspension has hurt the university’s reputation among the math community and will likely damage Northeastern’s ability to hire top candidates for positions in the department, he said Tuesday that Massey’s absence has not had a dramatic impact on the hiring process.

“It’s been more of an inconvenience having him suspended,” he said. “He’s not allowed on campus, so we have to deliver his mail by hand on the street corner. Students can’t talk to him, so communication has to go through me.”

McOwen said he looks forward to Massey’s suspension being lifted in January, when he will return to campus to teach. When asked if he still thought Massey had been treated unfairly, McOwen said yes, as far as he knew.

“We’ve really not been told much detailed information. He has told us some things but the administration has not,” he said. “There have been attempts to find compromises in the suspension but they’ve been unsuccessful.”

Dahlia Rudavsky, Massey’s attorney, said a faculty grievance filed by Massey is pending.

“It’s a long process, it has to go through the faculty committee to the provost,” she said.