Finding A New President

FINDING A NEW PRESIDENT
BOG establishes presidential search committee in emergency meeting
Ashley Woods / For The South End
Issue date: 10/24/07 Section: News


At an emergency public meeting last Wednesday, the Board of Governors voted unanimously to approve a resolution to create a Search Advisory Committee to elect a new Wayne State University president.

The committee will be responsible for advertising the open position and soliciting applications, as well as interviewing and recommending candidates to the Board of Governors. The board has to ultimately approve any candidate.

The board also voted 8-0 to appropriate $400,000 in funding from the Contingency Reserve Fund to finance the search process.

WSU President Irvin Reid resigned from the university Sept. 26 effective at the end of the academic year. The search committee hopes to elect a new president before the 2008-2009 academic year begins next August. To protect the confidentiality of the candidates, all committee meetings, records, and candidate identities will be kept private.

Board of Governors representatives to the Search Advisory Committee are BOG Chairman and Committee Chair Eugene Driker, Committee Vice Chair Jacquelin Washington, BOG Vice Chairman Richard Bernstein and Diane Dunaskiss. The committee also includes representatives from the medical school, faculty, administration, union, and local community leaders.

Two public town meetings will be held to allow the WSU committee to have a say in the selection process, said Driker.

The first meeting will be held in the BC room at McGregor Hall on Oct. 31 at 2:00 p.m. The second meeting will be held on Nov. 8 in the Green Auditorium at Scott Hall at 4:00 p.m. More information about the format of the meetings was expected to be announced soon.

"I think we want to wait to hear from the community before we begin the process," Driker explained. "We're opening it up to public opinion before deciding who the ideal candidate would be."

"We're looking for someone to fill President Reid's shoes," commented WSU Student Body President Cindy Chidi, who serves on the committee. She said the elected candidate must continue the university's capital campaign and work to increase WSU's significance regionally and nationally.

"I'm also looking for someone who speaks for the students…someone who will work on maintaining or stopping the rise in tuition costs," Chidi said.

"I expect that we'll get a good mix of candidates," said Dr. Jorge Chinea, the academic director for the Center of Chicano and Boricua Studies. "I hope to listen to as many people's opinions, and examine as many possibilities as we can, to try and see every candidate who is out there."

He said he thinks the next president will need to have experience in a multicultural, multiracial city such as Detroit.

"I also think we need someone who will continue to move Wayne State forward, in terms of becoming more of a 24/7 school," Chinea said.

Adrienne Kabanuk, a junior English major, said she also thinks WSU's leader will need a financial background.

"Obviously, we can't rely on the state right now for money," Kabanuk said. "The great thing about Wayne State is that it's affordable. But in bad financial times like these, we really need to make sure everyone can afford to go to college here."

Adam Krause, a senior English and Linguistics major, said he thinks Reid's tenure focused more on attracting students to live on campus then on the commuter student population.

"The needs of the majority, like parking, aren't being addressed. Instead, they keep building dorms. In the end, I really think we just need somebody who can be more receptive to students and faculty. We need a forum for students. Wayne State needs to empower them."

"I can't tell you what I think of Irvin Reid because I really have no idea what he stands for," agreed Kabanuk. "I would like to see someone elected who has a bit more presence in the student body. The administration is just inaccessible here most of the time."

Chidi said WSU will soon put up an online message board so students can vocalize what sort of leader they desire to become WSU's next president.

"Although I'm the only student sitting on the search committee," she said, "I need the questions and the comments of the student body. This is an active decision, and all 33,000 students need to describe the sort of candidate they would promote."

More information on the search for WSU's next president is available at www.bog.wayne.edu/.