The Oregon University System announced Michael Gottfredson @@checked@@as the finalist for the University president search — but if you’re a student, you probably don’t give a damn. You’re probably studying for your finals, preparing to return home or contemplating the end of your senior year. You don’t have time to think about who’s going to be our next top administrator; you’ve got too much on your plate.
Of course, nobody can be mad at you for your circumstantial indifference: Telling you who your new president could be now — the Monday of Finals Week — would be like telling you the president of the University would be removed from office during week 10 of fall term … Oh wait, that actually happened.@@checked@@
A trend is becoming clear here: The OUS makes its most important decisions — decisions that greatly affect us — during times when we are least capable of expressing our collective voice. Sure, they are bringing Gottfredson to campus to field questions and conduct discussions with our community, but just how many of us have the time to attend talks with future administrators when we have 20-page papers or bio-chem finals due this week?
How many times do they have to time decisions with our finals before we realize just how little the OUS cares about student voice?@@damn, frank! square one across the jaw@@
After the Lariviere firing, the OUS lost a great deal of trust from University students, staff and faculty. OUS Chancellor George Pernsteiner attended an emergency University Senate meeting to speak with our hurt community and took quite the verbal beatdown@@checked@@ in hopes of re-establishing OUS-University trust. Yes, they made a huge mistake by not being transparent and open about their decision (Willamette Week was the first to tell us), but they seemed more aware of why transparency and openness were important to our relationship — and they even appointed students to work on the presidential committee.
But making the second-most important announcement of the year during Finals Week of spring term doesn’t bode well with the concept of transparency. Transparency is a lot more than just being able to say “Well, we (technically) offered the community a chance to talk with the presidential candidate.” True transparency means making the information that matters most to the community available as soon as possible and doing your best to inform the community in times that are conducive to discussion. It means making that announcement during week five, not week ten. It means giving us adequate time to get to know this man before he becomes our leader.
The OUS has (again) failed to do this. Now, many members of the student body won’t get the opportunity to meet and greet their potential new president before he is hired. And as the committee makes that huge decision on Friday morning, they’ll likely make it without optimal community input.
So thank you, OUS, for once again alienating the greater student body from huge decisions. It’s a great reminder of why the University community is fighting to break its ties with you.