Representatives from the Presidential Search Committee, who will do most of the work in finding the next university president, confirmed this week students will have an opportunity to voice their expectations for a new university president at open forums to be held sporadically for the rest of the semester.
The committee sought to clarify their role in response to student inquiries and some debate.
Students especially voiced concern over the lack of response from sophomore criminal justice major Peter Kunzel, the lone student on the committee.
Kunzel and other committee members have signed confidentiality agreements to ensure information regarding the presidential candidates be kept out of the public eye.
Tina Penman, a senior behavioral neuroscience major who is active in the Student Government Association (SGA) and the Northeastern College Republicans, among other groups, said she was unhappy with Kunzel’s response to her request to meet.
“I’m not asking for him to tell me what he wants [in a president],” Penman said. “I just want him to sit down with me so I can tell him what’s going on. I’m a senior, and I want to make sure the university is left in good hands.”
Citing the confidentiality agreement they had signed, Kunzel and other members of the committee reiterated they could not meet with other members of the university community to discuss the committee’s proceedings.
In seeking her own answers, SGA President Ashley Adams also met with Vincent Lembo, vice president and university counsel who helped select the committee, to voice student concerns about access to the committee.
Lembo has declined to speak publicly about the process until a president has been chosen.
At the meeting, Lembo told Adams some committee members would be dispatched to the student forums, Adams said. The two agreed SGA would facilitate the forums, and Adams said she planned to make them well known to students in order to “make them big.”
“Students are going to have an opportunity to say what they want to say, then the committee will go forward,” Adams said.
The dates of the forums have yet to be announced.
Lembo said the committee members will use the forums to compile an ideal description, on which they would then evaluate candidates.
“The forums are a terrific idea – all members of the university community are eager to be heard, and this is the perfect way to go about doing that,” Kunzel said in an e-mail.
During the meeting with Adams, Lembo also elaborated on the job descriptions of the committee members.
While many members of the university community think of the committee as a group of representatives, Lembo said because of the confidentiality pledge, the members were not expected to speak from any perspective but their own.
“It’s traditionally what we would think of as a delegate, and there’s a difference between a representative and a delegate,” Adams said.
A representative, she said, speaks for the interests of all their constituents, whereas a delegate is normally not held to account by any particular body.
Lembo also said the committee will be responsive to opinions and suggestions expressed at the open forums.
Adams, who said last week she was concerned about student representation, was put somewhat at ease after receiving clarification from Lembo.
“I’m more comfortable now that the process has been expanded,” she said. “After students get a chance to voice their concerns, I think they’ll realize it’s good to have student input.”
