Dartblog

About 50 people have turned up to the student Presidential Search Committee Forum today in Collis Common Ground. About 20 are students.

Chairman of the search committee Al Mulley ‘70 opened with vagaries, a great deal of verbiage short on specifics.

The first questioner, a student, opened with a question about sustainability. His concern the “future green leader of our Big Green.” The manner of questioning and pre-planned question was very trite, and someone humorously commented to me that “hearing ‘sustainability’ today Is like hearing ‘proletariat’ when I went to school.”

Another questioner raised concerns about the low quality of the presidential leadership statement, available here. A paragraph-length sentence was read as one example of the lacking prose and the question was directed to Professor Gerzina, Chairman of the English Department as to what grade she might give a statement like that. Gerzina responded that “the document was universally praised.” Oh. Mulley dismissively noted of the question “your subjective opinion is duly noted” and commented that “you might find it easier to read if you don’t read out the commas.”

Another individual raised the question of whether recent conflict between the Board of Trustees and alumni is being taken in to account. Mulley answered that it had been, at the beginning, but that it was no longer really an issue.

Other questions: whether the next president might be a woman or minority, opportunities for students in working with professors at the cutting-edge of technological innovation, a mumbling diatribe about the relationship between financial aid and global oil production, and a John Sloan Dickey quote in the leadership statement.

Student Assembly President Molly Bode said that she looked forward to hearing and reading input from students on the search process and candidates, especially regarding potential nominations. The form for this on the presidential search committee website can be found here.