New $260K Oakland U Administrator Part of Culture Change

ROCHESTER, MI – Oakland University has hired another executive from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Libby Ciliberti, who will begin July 11 as the Rochester-based university’s chief human resources officer

The announcement was made to university employees via email Tuesday by chief operating officer Scott Kunselman, who also came from FCA.

And like Kunselman’s hiring last fall, Ciliberti’s is controversial, coming less than 24 hours after the university’s board of trustees quarreled about the new high-level position, the Detroit Free Press reports.

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At the same meeting, trustees approved a 3.95 percent  tuition increase, according to The Oakland Press.
Trustees approved the position in February, but hadn’t approved the funding for the $260,000-a-year job, which includes benefit costs, until Monday. Ciliberti was one of four 

Trustee Ronald Robinson argued against funding for the position on Monday, and on Tuesday repeated his objections in an email to the Detroit Free Press. He said it was a luxury that OU can’t afford and which will ultimately cost students.

"All board members should have been informed of the planned reorganization of OU’s human resource function and given persuasive reasons why such a new and costly position was necessary," Robinson wrote. "I certainly was not informed. I am not aware of any study performed to justify this action.I have never heard of any significant deficiencies in OU’s human resource function. …

"OU has been successful in operating under a very lean financial model with the limited support we get from the State. It is critical OU remain financially lean, otherwise our students will pay the price."

The OU administration has argued the position is part of strategic efforts to improve the university’s culture, which included his surprise hiring. After Kunselman was hired in November, Oakland University President George Hynd apologized for a lapse in communication surrounding the university’s decision to create the new $325,000-a-year chief operating officer position.

At the time, Hynd said the university acted swiftly to hire Kunselman, who was a member of the OU board of trustees at the time, because he had just announced his retirement from FCA, where he was senior vice president of vehicle safety and regulatory compliance. The position was created for Kunselman and hadn’t been posted or advertised.

“Occasionally, you have to do things differently if the opportunity presents itself,” Hynd said at the time. “This was an unusual circumstance.”

OU Board President Mark Schlussel said he backed the university’s administration, and suggsted it was inappropriate for the the board of trustees to “substitute its judgment for the administration's.”

Ciliberti, who has worked for the Auburn Hills automaker since 1985, was hired after a national search that attracted 73 applicants. Ten candidates were interviewed, and Ciliberti was one of four finalists.

In the memo to faculty members, she said has “special appreciation for the importance of higher education.”
Her father was assistant dean of the University of Louisville Medical School and she and her eight siblings all have advanced professional degrees.

"I am excited about a new position in a dynamic educational environment where I feel the passion and energy of the student body and in which I can bring my 30 plus years of service-oriented experience to create synergies in HR processes and systems,” she said.