The search for Ohio University's next president has been by turns ridiculous, outrageous, infuriating and deeply discouraging. The search committee has kept itself cloistered well away from the very campus whose future it is helping determine; it has cloaked its progress reports in administrative gobbledygook; worst of all, it has missed nearly every deadline it set for itself. On this first day of March, it has essentially nothing to show for four months of existence except a lot of unsubstantiated promises that it is making progress. When OU searched for a president 10 years ago, Robert Glidden had already visited campus by February. Now, the search committee says, the first candidates will not visit Athens until May, when students are getting ready to leave and administrators can sneak in their picks away from the public eye. This is beyond exasperating.
As part of their effort to show that they haven't forgotten there are students at OU, the two student members of the search committee will hold an open forum tonight in the 1954 Lounge in Baker Center. Student Trustee Tara Stuckey and Graduate Student Senate president Mike Willits say they want to gain student input about what qualifications the committee should look for in candidates. Of course, no one has any way of knowing whether students' ideas will go anywhere near the search committee members - the lion's share of each meeting is conducted in a closed-door executive session. And anyway, shouldn't the committee have a pretty good idea at this point what qualifications it wants in candidates?
It's difficult to remain calm when examining the search in detail or comparing it with previous ones. In 1994, when OU wanted to replace then-President Charles Ping, the search committee met once or twice a month. Since October, the present committee has met three times. The members cannot say exactly how much the search will cost, or how much OU will pay consulting firm A.T. Kearney. At the most recent meeting, the members learned that A.T. Kearny is preparing profiles of potential candidates, but did not make public how many there are. The original deadline for nominations and applications was Feb. 5, but committee members have since relaxed it for some reason. In 1994, the search committee had narrowed a list of 130 candidates to 10 by January. Stuckey said last week that it was more important to find a good candidate than to meet deadlines, a statement of such tremendous bureaucratic senselessness it's almost funny. Glidden announced his retirement in September to give the university enough time to search for a suitable replacement - there is no excuse for the search being as far behind as it is.
The OU presidential search committee owes it to students and faculty to make public all the things it has said and done in its executive sessions
the number of candidates it is considering and why it has never met in Athens. It must reveal how much of students' - and taxpayers' - money it is using to find Glidden's replacement. Most importantly, it must find some way to reassure students that their views are seriously being incorporated into the members' decision about which of the candidates to eventually recommend to the university board of trustees. Glidden said last week that he had been told he was not the students' choice in the 1994 search, one of the most discouraging things about this whole sordid mess. OU owes its students a real voice - not secrecy, false promises or doubletalk - in choosing the person who will make many of the important decisions during their time in Athens.
Cast your vote in Tuesday primary
In an ideal world, no one would need reminding that tomorrow is Ohio's primary election, in which Republicans and Democrats will select which candidates they want to face opposite-party opponents in the general election in November. But in a world far from ideal, here is a friendly reminder: Vote tomorrow. There is a lot at stake.
Throughout Ohio, Democrats will select which candidate they think would make the best contender to vie against President Bush. In Athens County, voters will pick from very different choices how they think the sheriff's department ought to be run, how the county should prosecute criminals and how best the commissioners will create jobs and grow the economy. Super Tuesday is a make-or-break moment for dozens of politicians and issues throughout the country, and to be sure the best ones win, everyone should lend their voice. 17
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