Some students want more input in presidential search

As the search for the next University president continues, some student leaders are voicing concerns over a lack of student input during the process.

Despite open forums held by the presidential search committee in September and the formation of an e-mail address -- pres-searchupenn.edu -- where members of the University community can send comments and feedback regarding the search, some campus leaders said these measures are not adequate.

"It'd be really valuable if the search committee allowed us to have an open forum question-and-answer session with candidates," said Asian Pacific Student Coalition Chairwoman Julia Lee, an Engineering senior. "This would provide a way to interact with the candidates."

According to Lee, the four students on the committee -- Undergraduate Assembly Chairman Jason Levy, Student Committee on Undergraduate Education President Ophelia Roman, Graduate and Professional Student Assembly Chairman Robert Alvarez and Graduate Student Associations Council Chairwoman Dierdra Reber -- are only "representative of a portion of the University community."

Though pleased to note that Levy has engaged in dialogue with students and that the town hall meeting was "helpful as a first-level effort," Lee said that "the bottom line is that we can't be certain that whatever we say or feel has an impact."

Co-Chairman of the University Honor Council Dan Landsburg, however, said he felt that the student representation on the committee was fair.

"Considering that the committee that's selecting the president isn't very large... the student representatives they have picked are representative of the entire Penn community," he said.

"Their organizations really encompass everybody," the College senior added.

But Latino Coalition spokesman Nicolas Rodriquez said that it does not seem like the committee is soliciting much student opinion.

"There is no extra input," said Rodriquez, a College senior and Daily Pennsylvanian columnist. "Even when the trustees have held town hall meetings... that was for an hour."

Landsburg said that the public forums were a step in the right direction, but that there is a need for more opportunities for students to express their opinions.

"I don't think it should necessarily be only once," he said, adding that such forums could be better publicized.

David Herman, vice president of Penn Democrats, said that all students need to be heard during the search.

"The most important thing is that students be given a voice, and not specific student interest groups," the College senior added.

Herman also said he was not aware of the search committee e-mail address, and voiced his frustrations over the confidential nature of the search thus far.

"It seems to me that I don't know enough about what's going on to even make an informed judgment about [student groups'] input in the search," he said.

Rodriquez said that while he does know about the e-mail address provided, he "highly doubted" that many people were using it.

"It would be great if people utilized it, but in terms of the effectiveness of it actually having input on the committee, I can't say that," he said.

Though Landsburg said he did not know of the e-mail address, he said that it can "absolutely" serve as a way for more student input to be integrated into the search.

According to Landsburg, "as long as the e-mails are being looked at and considered during discussion," they can be useful.

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