The search for Ohio University's next president is a very important undertaking that will have implications for OU students for years to come. It is good to know that the chair of the committee is willing to give 110 percent of his time to this vital task. I mean, he is so dedicated that he was willing to give up his lunch hour to discuss the university's next leader.
That's right. Not only did yesterday's meeting of the University Presidential Search and Screening Committee relocate to Columbus - again - the committee members schlepped to the headquarters of Cardinal Health, whose CEO is Bob Walter, the head of the committee. To be fair, Walter did give up more than just an hour. The committee was scheduled to meet until 3 p.m.
Now there is another explanation for the Columbus meetings - The Port Columbus International Airport. Walter said back in March that the committee would be interviewing candidates by now, so it seems obvious that is what they are doing. Some names that have been zipping through the rumor mill include Utah State University President Kermit Hall and John Roush, president of Centre College in Kentucky. Both have ties to Ohio or OU. Hall was a dean at Ohio State University and received his bachelor's degree from the University of Akron. Roush, a native of Kettering, received his bachelor's degree from OU's Honors Tutorial College and his master's from Miami. OU will not confirm or deny whether the two are among the finalists, nor that anyone is officially being interviewed. Roush and Hall have been unreachable for comment.
It is bad enough that the committee is woefully behind schedule. (Remember back in November when they said the president would be named at the beginning of this month? Now potential replacements will not visit campus until at least the middle of next month, but in the eyes of the committee, this still constitutes being on schedule!) But the extensive efforts to distance the committee from the campus it is serving is just ludicrous. I understand that Walter gave oodles of money to the bicentennial campaign, and I am sure the students surfing the Internet wirelessly in the New Lecture Hall appreciate it. But that still does not seem like a reason to hand him the keys to the campus.
Is Bob Walter's lunch hour the only time he can devote to this? Oh
I'm sure that's not true OU's go-to media guy Jack Jeffery told me yesterday. Meeting in Columbus simply provides the committee members, who will be coming from around the state, a central location.
Oh, really? So it is more convenient for the 13 members of the committee who are based in Athens (OU faculty staff and students) to travel three hours round-trip to Columbus than it is for the seven members who are not (mostly Board of Trustees members who live in Columbus) to come to Athens? Of the seven outside of Athens, Dan Evans, dean of OU's Southern Campus, still would have less distance to travel if the meeting took place here.
Apparently, the committee is supposed to rotate the meetings between Athens and Columbus to accommodate all members, Jeffery said. He could not explain, then, why the last committee meeting (April 16) was in Columbus. The committee did meet in Athens once, (March 15) while students and faculty were busy with the stresses of finals week. Before the trek to Athens, the committee met in Columbus (February 17), Lancaster (December 5) and Columbus (November 13). For those of you keeping score at home, that schedule goes: Columbus, Lancaster, Columbus, Athens, Columbus, Columbus. Is anyone else noticing a common theme?
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Nick Juliano
