When the SGA senate meets today, it needs to come up with a plan to save Ball State's presidential search.
The Board of Trustees has mishandled the search and irritated the campus with every move. First it refused to give Beverley Pitts the title of president. However, she eventually said she did not want the title, and the criticism died down.
But new issues surfaced and won't go away. The Board created a search committee that upset the University Senate enough that it asked the Board to disband it. The Senate complained that it did not represent Ball State's community. The Board flatly refused. Then the search committee held a public forum that became a simple one-way discussion. The committee members present would not entertain any questions, inviting more criticism.
Finally, Thursday, the University Senate discovered that the entire search would be confidential. No finalists would be named, let alone brought to campus to meet the community.
Early on, SGA President Jayson Manship said fighting the Board because of the makeup of the search committee was not worthwhile. He said it could interfere with governance restructuring. His concern was understandable at the time, but as the Board continues to ignore the concerns of the community, this issue should bother him more.
Bottom line: If the Board continues with this approach, the angry campus will take its frustrations out on its new leader.
Manship, his executive officers and members of the senate must use their university connections to convince the Board to reverse its thinking. If the committee wants to keep finalists' names confidential, fine. However, that means these officials must make an extra effort to make other parts of the search open to the public. SGA could target campus groups to find out what they want in a new president using two-way discussions. Targeting students in this way could solve the trend of low attendance at campus forums.
SGA could convince the Board and the search committee to release generic information about candidates. Instead of identifying finalists by name, perhaps the community could at least be told about their education, their background and their philosophies: not enough to identify the finalists, just enough so that the campus isn't surprised when it's all over.
Questions have been raised about the effectiveness of SGA. But if SGA has proven one thing this year, it is that when it wants to, it can rally people for a cause. Thanks to SGA, a man ran across McKinley Avenue in a Speedo in winter weather to support a new student center, something SGA says Ball State is missing.
Unfortunately, when Monday comes, Ball State will officially be missing something much more important -- a president.
And that's something Ball State really can't go without.
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