Seven students attended Wednesday’s presidential search forum.
Board of Trustees member said they still appreciated the feedback.
Students who attended offered a breadth of perspectives.
A total of seven students seized the opportunity to offer opinions Wednesday regarding the search for a new university president.
The students spoke to the Board of Trustees and school administrators during the one-hour meeting, sharing their opinions as a representation of the student body.
Wayne Estopinal, leader of Ball State’s search committee and a board member, said they received good feedback despite the low numbers.
“I know students are busy,” he said. “It would have been great to have a packed house, but I think the comments we got were very valuable.”
Though a small group, the students who attended included in-state, out-of-state and minority students who were able to offer a variety of perspectives.
Sophomore political science major Jason Pickell said as a fifth generation Ball State student, he enjoyed seeing the university grow during President Jo Ann Gora’s 10 years in office.
“We need a president with similar goals to President Gora,” Pickell said. “Campus improvements, a new college and athletics.”
Liu Thomas, a senior hospitality and food management major, said international students should be more integrated with the general student body.
“I’m friends with a lot of international students and they put all the international students in one residence hall,” Thomas said. “They should be spread out in all different kinds of residence halls.”
Charlie Clausen, a graduate student and assistant hall director of Painter and Whitcraft halls, said the university needs to improve academic advising.
“I have heard a lot of students say it’s difficult to schedule an appointment and their faculty advisers have higher priorities [that aren’t students],” Clausen said. “A lot of students feel like they are on their own for graduation.”
Estopinal said comments from the student forum and additional forums will be compiled into a document that presidential search firm Baker and Associates will distribute to potential candidates.
In the 2004 search, the only student involved was the student member on the Board of Trustees.
The lack of student involvement had caused a group of 15 students to march from the Scramble Light to the Administration Building shouting, “One more student” to protest the lack of representation in the search.
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