In a letter to the University community on Aug. 16, the chairman of the Board of Trustees, Joe Adorjan, wrote that on Sept. 28, the Board of Trustees would meet to begin an earnest search for a new university president.
As this meeting is quickly approaching, it is time for students and faculty alike to more deeply consider what they would like to see in Saint Louis University’s next president.
There are a few things that the next president will hope to improve from SLU’s last president.
The first aspect that students especially would like to see improved is the future president’s presence on campus. Many students would text their friends and update their Facebook to say they had just seen former President Rev. Lawrence Biondi, S.J. riding in his golf cart to DuBourg. While this had become a playful joke amongst students, it certainly shows how little he was seen if every sighting is relatively newsworthy.
Biondi’s lack of presence during his tenure at the University can be further criticized when comparing him to other university presidents. The president of University of Loyola-Chicago, for example, is well-known through his meeting with student leaders in an effort to seem approachable. When the board of trustees begins their search for a new president, they would do well to consider this aspect in their decision-making.
Another important issue that students and faculty especially would like to see in a new president is a devotion, not mere lip service, to transparency and shared governance within the University. The extremity of this problem within the last year was well documented. What’s important though, is that everyone in the SLU community feels they have a voice in the affairs of the University.
A last trait that should be considered is openness to change. There are times when the president must lead the University and make the difficult decisions themselves. However, such a situation should be a rare occurrence and any president should display openness to new ideas and change.
One reason that interim president Bill Kauffman has received so much praise in his short time at the position is precisely because he displays such openness to students, faculty and the administration.
It is also important how the search for a new president will be conducted.
The first aspect of the search that deserves scrutiny is the involvement of the Faculty Senate in the selection process. Their opinions matter a great deal and their active involvement and influence in the selection process would be a message to the SLU community that true collaboration and respect between administration and faculty is taking place at SLU.
In Adorjan’s letter, he noted that he wants the search for the next president “to be as inclusive as possible.” This is of the utmost importance. Nobody with the talent and the passion for such a prestigious and difficult position should be excluded. After having a Jesuit president for the last 25 years, some people would just like to see someone that isn’t a Jesuit get the position.
Many people within the University are expecting the Board of Trustees to choose an older, white Jesuit to be the next president. Maybe someone who matches this description will eventually be appointed. However, such a man should have to compete against candidates with a myriad of different experiences and ideas of where this University is headed.
If these considerations and others expressed by the University community are utilized in the search for SLU’s new president, we can all be confident that SLU is headed in the right direction.