Faculty members of the College of Communication, Information and Media will vote Friday to approve guidelines for a new search committee for a dean.
Unfortunately, the guidelines no longer include an undergraduate student representative on the committee.
The new search committee is being formed after the original committee was unable to find any suitable candidates to submit to Provost Beverley Pitts.
Michael Holmes, interim dean of the college, said the committee needed to be trimmed down because there were too many people.
In fact, Nancy Carlson, member of the original committee, said she didn't think there was a time when all the members attended a meeting.
However, there are other ways to trim down a committee.
One option has already been taken. The guidelines suggest the industry and alumni representatives be combined. This step was probably the best one to take as people outside of the university community would have the hardest time committing to a meeting.
"External members slow things down," Holmes said.
Undergraduate students, however, are not external members of the university.
They are a vital part of the college. They are also the largest group of CCIM. Yet the undergraduate students have no direct voice on the search committee.
The leaders of the college say students will still have a voice in the search process by being able to attend meetings with the candidates selected by the search committee.
However, after the past year, it is important to allow the undergraduate voice in the full process of the selection.
Last year, the entire undergaduate body of Ball State had only one representative on the presidential search committee, and it had no say in who the representative was. Now the undergraduates have been left out of the committee for a new dean.
How are students to expect their voices will be considered if the university doesn't deem them worthy enough to be on the search committee?
Including an undergraduate representative on the committee isn't necessarily needed to make sure the student voice is heard. It's needed so the university shows students they are a valued part of the community.
With actions like these, it's no wonder student apathy is on the rise.''2#DZ~|] editorialDNEditorial''2SORTN+â-ä2AUDT
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