Pres. forum attracts few

Undergraduate students want the University's next president to have a backbone. That was just about the only point agreed upon by the 12 students who attended last night's president search committee open forum. The two-hour forum was designed to provide an opportunity for undergraduates to voice their opinions about the qualities they would like to see in the University's next leader. During the forum, discussions ranged from free speech to fundraising. Though the group debated many issues, they all said the new president should be a decisive person. "We need someone who will stick to his or her beliefs under pressure," one student said. "I think that [former President] Sheldon Hackney's performance during the water buffalo incident was very disappointing. He seemed to bend to outside pressures." Most of the students there said the new president should be accessible to students. Many suggested that the president live on campus or provide office hours for students. "I'm from Miami and the University there has a president that lives off campus," one student said. "He really doesn't have a presence on campus and no one takes him seriously." None of the students could agree on exactly what the new president's priorities should be. Some said undergraduate education should be the first on the list, while others said fundraising was more important. United Minorities Council Chairperson Jun Bang and Wharton senior Sharon Molinoff – the two undergraduate representatives on the president search committee – mediated the forum. They said the sparse turnout was actually an improvement over the attendance of the first open forum held in May. Bang said the first forum had only a "small circle" of only about five or six students. She can't explain the lack of student involvement. "It's hard to know why students don't come [to the forums]," the College senior said. "I think it's a combination of things. One factor, I think, is that [students] think the president is on such a higher level that what they say doesn't count." Despite the low turnout, Bang said she got more input from this group than the last one and Molinoff called the meeting very "productive." "I would've liked more people to have come, but those that were here were very willing to speak out on several issues," Molinoff said. "[The students] had a lot of interesting things to say." The next open forum for undergraduate and graduate students held by the president search committee will be October 6 at Bodek Lounge in Houston Hall. Search Committee Chairperson Alvin Shoemaker said he will attend.

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