University attorney John Moll said during the weekend that some of the language describing Ball State's presidential search has been unclear.
He was talking about a sentence in a press release from Dec. 12, 2003. It said, "Only the name of the individual selected as president will ever be made public."
Moll said, "Different people could interpret that to mean different things."
No, there is one way to interpret that. The word "ever" means, in no uncertain terms, that no public debate will occur about the candidates under any condition. To meet this guarantee there must be a conscious decision, made in private, by the entire search committee, that only one name will be mentioned at the public meeting where the candidate is selected. Moll even admitted that an unspoken consensus could be reached by the search committee in a closed meeting.
Indiana's Open Meeting Law, in regard to closed meetings, says the search committee may "receive information about and interview prospective employees."
It says nothing about reaching any kind of consensus. It doesn't even say the committee can have a discussion. It just says, "receive information about and interview."
The Board of Trustees should be embracing the law, not finding ways to get around it. The law was written for a reason.
What the Board is doing is showing disrespect to the law, just like it shows disrespect to faculty and students on a regular basis.
Members of this search committee are being selected on a random basis. There has been no election or application process for any position. When the Board of Trustees announced that another faculty member was appointed to the search committee, it was just another slap in the face, because that person was not chosen by a faculty vote.
Sarah Atkinson, the student representative, was also chosen without an application or election process. Atkinson will do well, but she will need help. Being the lone voice of dissent in a room full of Ph.D.s and law degrees can be a daunting task. Surely she would appreciate an ally.
The students have been asking for this, but the Board has ignored them as usual. In the memo released last Wednesday, the Board even said, "We take faculty comments about this process seriously."
The Board should take students seriously too, and the students should make them. The starting point is Wednesday, at the Student Government Association Senate meeting. Atkinson will be there to listen to student concerns.
The president makes decisions that affect the students. Sports teams were cut from the university by former president Blaine Brownell. He oversaw two investigations of the University Police Department, recently helping to make decisions about how the department would react to the shooting death of Michael McKinney.
But perhaps the more important issue is that students don't think they can go to their president for help. In the 1920s, students created a 20-foot-long petition to insist on the appointment of L. A. Pittenger as president.
Pittenger was a president for the students. Brownell and other recent presidents were for the administration.
Take the presidency back. The SGA Senate meets at 3:15 p.m. Wednesday in Cardinal Hall. All Senate meetings are open to the public. Let's fill up the room.
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