I would like to compare two leaders of the Christian community: Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty and the leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis.  First I would like to establish some facts about their outlooks on homosexuality. There is controversy surrounding Pope Francis’ opinions about the sinfulness of the homosexuality due to actions before and after his election to the papacy.

In 2010 (as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio), he worked against an Argentine bill allowing same-sex marriage and same-sex adoption.  But in a post-election interview with Antonio Sparado, SJ of America, he remembers his response to a question about homosexuality as this: “Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person? We must always consider the person.”  Clearly, the pope’s opinion on the sinfulness of homosexuality is not cut and dry.

Phil Robertson does not mince any words regarding his opinion. In the now-renowned interview with GQ, he claimed that sin started with homosexuality and spreads from there to drunks and terrorists.  Now, due to the confusion surrounding the pope and my personal desire for a constructive debate, I am not going to talk about the sinfulness of homosexuality, I am going to talk about the presentation of the Christian faith.

Currently, the Catholic Church is going through what many have described as an identity crisis.  There are two issues at hand – maintaining traditional beliefs and adjusting viewpoints to appeal to the new generation.  Appealing to the youth was part of the reason that Pope Francis was elected – he has striven to place an emphasis on youth and advancing the Church into the future.  Robertson would represent the other belief, sticking to the Bible and traditional teachings instead of adopting “new-age” beliefs.  Now, both positions (changing vs. maintaining tradition) have merit, but the way that people present their opinions makes all the difference.  And that is why there was such uproar about Robertson’s comments and subsequent suspension.

His attitude was one of superiority, spreading the Lord’s truth to these people who sin and need to remedy their bad habits.  This is by no means an accurate description of his goals, but this is an interpretation of his comments that is too easy to make.

On the other hand, Pope Francis presents a more passive idea of traditionalism, claiming that the one known truth about Christianity is that Christ is God and that we are all searching for God.  He admits the possibility of mistakes within tradition and claims that a true religious leader needs to have doubt, to “leave room for the Lord, not for our certainties; we must be humble.”  Some may interpret this doubt as weakness in the face of heathenism that is becoming rampant in the modern age; but Pope Francis describes it perfectly as humility.  Francis acknowledges that humans are human and can make mistakes, even mistakes that may have been included in the Magisterium or the Bible.  That doesn’t mean that these spiritual sources are incorrect entirely, just that certain parts of the Bible or the teachings of the Church may be wrong. Francis presents a humble openness whereas Robertson presents a harsh certitude.

I may not be a follower of Buddhism, but I want to be able to listen to any Buddhist who may have something to say to me. This isn’t about selling out on my faith in God, but it’s about being willing to communicate and recognize the goodness in other religions and other people, and I think that is a large part of being a good human being.  That is why I draw solace from Pope Francis’ example.  He shows me how to be a good person, whereas Robertson simply tells me how to be good from his perspective.  In this day and age, I have thousands of people telling me that I am wrong and that I should change.  It’s a relief to have a different spiritual icon be willing to say that he, and God, accepts me as a person who is trying, even though I am not perfect and I am full of sin.

The football world was shocked this week by a bullying scandal in which former Rams player Richie Incognito verbally abused one of his Dolphins teammates, Jonathan Martin. However, there was another story last week that has received a great deal less coverage than it aptly deserves.

That story is about hall of famer Tony Dorsett. Tony Dorsett was a running back for the Pitt Panthers and then for the Dallas Cowboys. Unlike the bruisers of his day such as Earl Campbell, Dorsett seemed to dance around the field, avoiding outmatched defenders on his way to the end zone. He played as a “finesse back” throughout his 12 year career. He avoided the crunching hits that can end careers. But now, it seems he couldn’t avoid a much more debilitating disease as a result of his illustrious football career.

That disease is called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and is likely caused by repeated and heavy head trauma. The disease is also known to cause depression and dementia. Dorsett and a group of five other former NFL players who were tested at UCLA were the first former living NFL players to be diagnosed with CTE.

This finding, along with yet another suicide by a former NFL player in September, which follows the high-profile suicides of Junior Seau and Jovan Belcher last year (Seau was later found to have CTE), may be an important opportunity for current NFL players to take pause. These cases may give them a good chance to reflect if it is more important that they continue playing the sport they love, making hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars a year while risking memory loss, dementia, depression and CTE in the future. Or instead they could leave the game they’ve played their entire lives for an early retirement, or, much more likely, move to a new career.

The sports media coverage surrounding these suicides and medical findings have been important in getting the word out to both NFL players and the masses in general. Ten years ago, concussions and head injuries didn’t receive nearly the same coverage that they do now. Part of that has to do with medical advances in preventative and reactive care for football players at every level, but the media must still be praised for its investigative reporting on the issue.

What is most important for young football players and their guardians, as well as NFL players, is that they receive all the information they could possibly need in order to make informed decisions on the costs and benefits of playing football. There are people who espouse taking more drastic measures on a sport they see as too dangerous for young boys to be playing, but the realities of the time can’t allow for that. Football is a game of warriors and it is the warrior culture that still prevails in football. Kids and adults who play football understand the risk to their dignity if they take weeks off with a “headache.” So for now, the proliferation of information is all that can be done to give these warriors pause.

For the past few weeks, a proposal has been floating around administration, faculty and student leaders that could drastically change the landscape of Saint Louis University. The proposal is a comprehensive ban on the use of tobacco on SLU’s campus. Under this plan, smoking cigarettes, cigars, pipes, hookah, etc. will be prohibited across the SLU campus. Faculty Senate received a presentation of its proposal two weeks ago and SGA received a similar presentation just yesterday.

The plan is the brainchild of the Dean of Public Health, Edwin Trevathan, and the ban is part of a broader plan to discourage the use of tobacco by SLU students, faculty and staff. This plan includes tobacco-cessation programs that will be available to students, faculty and staff that wish to stop using tobacco at a reduced price or even free.

It is the hope of Dean Trevathan that the final draft of the tobacco free program will be implemented on Jan. 1, 2014. However, before Dean Trevathan or the rest of the administration intends to implement this bold plan so quickly, there needs to be a serious and thoughtful discussion of the pitfalls of this plan.

The Editorial Board’s first concern is with the rapidity of the plan’s implementation. The first member of the Editorial Board to hear about this plan only found out about three weeks ago. Surely such a colossal change to the university would be discussed in greater length with all of the interested bodies of the university.

The second concern we have is the grandeur of the plan; it is all encompassing. Rather than just banning smoking on campus, which can damage the health of others through second-hand smoke, the plan intends to ban chewing tobacco, which is not harmful to anyone other than the person willfully choosing to do it. The plan also proposes to prohibit smoking in one’s own car while on SLU’s campus, which would also not harm anyone else. There is also another concern that smokers would crowd the streets around campus, creating lanes of smoke that people must walk through. Surely that’s better than the occasional whiff of smoke on West Pine? Members of the Editorial Board have also proposed the use of designated zones where people can smoke on campus as a better alternative.

However, the greatest grievance that we have is with the enforcement mechanism of this plan. Over the years, DPS has refused to enforce a smoking ban, and this refusal was the snag on a plan proposed a couple of years ago. Instead, the plan proposes an honor system where members of the university are to enforce the tobacco ban. The proposed plan gives a number of scripts that a member of the SLU community can use to someone using tobacco (no, we’re not kidding). There is something very wrong with making a rule that won’t be enforced, and there are several members of the Editorial Board who have said that they have no intention of enforcing such a rule.

The members of the administration that are pushing this plan forward must consider the impact of pushing a flawed plan on the SLU community so quickly and without adequate collaboration and input. This massive plan is first shown to SGA less than two months before its proposed implementation and hasn’t even been seen or discussed by the average student. This is hardly in the spirit of collaboration and shared decision-making; a spirit that is supposedly now cherished and protected after the travails over these issues during the past couple of years. There is still time for compromise, but in order for compromise to occur, the administration must look to the entire SLU community in a timely and meaningful way.

If you have been on the intersection of Vandeventer and Forest Park Ave. recently you might have seen some small changes take place. Until very recently, a BP gas station and a small car business have been bulldozed and replaced with empty lots.

The demolition of these two business are part of two major redevelopment plans going into motion right off SLU’s campus: Midtown Station and CORTEX retail. The first major development project will redevelop the Old Federal Mogul tire factory site that stretches from Spring Street down to the Forest Park Ave. and Vandeventer intersection. The Midtown Station project aims to bring national retailers into the area. The next project starts at Vandeventer and continues down Forest Park Ave to the Central West End medical facility. Similar to Midtown Station, the CORTEX retail district seeks to adapt the land for redevelopment and attract retail and residential options.

Not much is known about the Midtown Station project funded by development agency Pace Properties. The project proposal released by Pace Properties reveals the agency’s intention to bring in five retail tenants. Midtown Station contains 166,200 square feet of area that is up for redevelopment. The largest planned site will be 80,000 square feet and is rumored to be the next location for a Target. Other sites go down in square footage with sites ranging from 35,000 to 11,000. The project proposal has allotted 812 parking spaces, which sits right in the middle of the project area.

Currently, the project resembles traditional suburban planning that favors transportation by vehicle. The proposal aims to provide large swaths of land for parking and minimal space for pedestrian friendly sidewalks. Midtown Station reminds easily of the Brentwood shopping district off of I-64.

The current problem with the proposed Midtown Station is the attempt by Pace Properties to implement a suburban design inside an urban location. While the project proposal is vague and short on details, a few observations for critique can be drawn. First, the traditional model of the major retail outlets used in the project proposal will disrupt the urban environment. The large single unit development plots that Pace has allotted are based on the Big Box development model.

Imagine a typical Wal-Mart or (once again) the Brentwood shopping district right off SLU’s campus. Big Box development equals large buildings and the accompanying grey expanse of concrete for cars. Inside an urban environment, big box destroys walkability and the urban fabric. While I agree the area needs to be redeveloped for creating more economic opportunities around SLU’s campus, there are smarter and more urban friendly methods available. A big step would make the development mix use. This means creating a space where both residential and commercial exist in the same place. Also, creating storefronts for small businesses and restaurants.

The latest update on this project included an extension of the metrolink and a bike path. The bike path would be included at the border of the project area next to I-64. The path would aim to connect Midtown Station with the adjacent CORTEX retail project.

The biggest question about the project concerns SLU students. Pace Properties recognizes the potential business SLU could provide for the new development. In its proposal SLU is included in the area’s top eight employers. The businesses seeking land in this area will be benefited by SLU student participation as consumers and employees. While I have no doubt that the project will be successful with the standard big-box development Pace Properties is currently planning, a smarter design that promotes urban environments will make a shopping district that could be similar to another Central West End or Loop district. Developing a project that contains a multitude of businesses in comparison to the current five is a challenging prospect. However, it provides a stronger economic foundation that could directly serve the surrounding community.

A project in the D.C. area using an urban model developed by George Washington University called WalkUps mixes big retail with small businesses to create an area friendly to smart urban developing.

I believe redevelopment of the Midtown Station area can greatly benefit Midtown and SLU. A successful combination of urban friendly development with the economic foundation provided by big retail centers such as Target could give SLU an area that contains elements of Central West End’s urban playground with Brentwood shopping district’s functionality.

Some people believe we are born with characteristic traits while others think we learn them from the people who raised us. No matter how we were raised, where we grew up or what our background is, we all learned several rules as children. We learned to share, to play nicely and to treat one another with respect, among numerous other things.

As we’ve gotten older, we’ve been expected to gather more insight on life and to add on to these original life lessons that were taught to us at such a young age. We may not all have the exact same attributes, but despite our differences, there are certain traits that should be constants in every one of our lives. One of these traits is empathy.

As a little reminder, empathy is the ability to understand the feelings of another person. While this is somewhat comparable to the idea of sympathy, it is not the same thing. Sympathy is having supportive feelings for another person. If a friend is having a bad day, we may feel sympathetic and try to make him or her feel better. Empathy goes much farther than that. Empathy is to understand where a person is coming from. It is to put oneself in another person’s shoes and to try to imagine what they are experiencing. While it is one thing to give support and advice, it is another to be aware and mindful of a given situation. This is no simple task. Empathy requires patience, understanding and time.

As college students, we are all constantly on the go and trying to fit as much into a day as we can. It is very easy to get wrapped up in our own lives and schedules and forget about other things, if only for a day or two.

There comes a time, however, when we have to realize when a friend needs us. While college is a full-time job for most of us right now, we need to remember to keep it in perspective a little. It is four years of our lives, give or take, and after we graduate certain things won’t matter anymore. It won’t matter if we got a B on that test because we stayed up with a friend who was having a rough day. It won’t matter that we lost countless hours of sleep planning out our future lives and careers with friends. It won’t matter if we gained a few pounds from late night food runs. It will only matter that we were there for the people who needed us.

Empathy is being there for one another and being aware of what people are going through. It is easy for us to listen to stories, but it is even easier to judge the people in them because of the way they acted in a certain situation. We cannot judge someone for something we haven’t experienced.

Empathy is especially important in relationships. Whether they be with roommates, friends, family members or significant others, it is something that will either strengthen or weaken a connection. Being able to communicate while at the same time seeing another person’s point of view is very important. When arguing it’s often times hard to see where another person is coming from. We are so focused on believing we’re right that we’re not able to listen to the other person’s argument.

Conflicts get blown out of proportion when people stop listening to each other. We have to be conscious of one another’s opinions and, as cheesy as this sounds, feelings. What might not bother us may be a real issue for someone else. Just because we might get over something quickly doesn’t mean everyone does and vice versa.

Empathy seems like it should be a given, but sometimes it gets forgotten. Although it should be something that comes naturally to us, it’s still nice to get a reminder every once and a while.

So here it is: be patient, be understanding and be kind. Be empathetic and you will receive it back.

Recently I have noticed a severe lack of something vitally important to all our lives on this campus-politeness. Now I know that being polite and putting others first is not always at the top of our agendas, what with our mind full of worries and stresses over school, work, money and relationships.

Sometimes you have days where you spill coffee down the front of your shirt, forget to print out an assignment (or do it at all) and then get ruined by pop quizzes. Other times you have days of sunshine and rainbows where you ace the test, impress the cutie in your class and have time to both nap and hang out with your friends. For some of us (read: me) it is usually the former rather than the latter.

It isn’t always easy being a Billiken, but there are a few simple ways we can mind our manners to make life easier for all of us. My first suggestion is that when it is rush hour on West Pine make sure to walk faster. There is nothing more irritating than walking between two distant buildings, trying to make it to class on time and having to dodge around some of the slowest walkers known to humankind. If you are leisurely strolling around campus at this time, good for you, but please move to far right, the shoulder if you will, of West Pine. Please give the people trying to make it from Beracha to Tegeler in ten minutes a fighting chance.

Next, hold the door for people. Even if you are busy, late, in a bad mood or hate the person behind you, you are never too important to hold the door open for someone else. It takes approximately three seconds and will not damage your pride at all. Your only way out of this is if the person behind you is more than four to five paces away. Holding the door for someone is generally just the right thing to do in a civilized society. When I first came to SLU I was astounded at how kind everyone was for always holding the door for each other, but three years later it appears as though our manners have eroded. So hold the door for a stranger and check it off your good deed for the day list.

Next, if you are going to take a phone call in public, do not do it loudly in the middle of the BSC (who gets service in there anyway?) or the lobby of Ritter, or Pius or the middle of Starbucks. No one wants to hear you complain to your mother or tell your best friend from home what you did this weekend. Also, if you happen to be this loud person, why do you want us all to know what you are talking about anyway? Whatever it is you have to discuss with someone at the top of your lungs, I feel as though I can speak for everyone when I say that we are all eavesdropping on your conversation and judging you silently. Take your call somewhere more private where the rest of us are not bothered by your description of what you had for dinner.

My next suggestion for a happier SLU is to clean up after yourself. We all use common spaces on this campus, whether it be the BSC, Pius, the CGC, etc. So whenever you are done enjoying a meal at ABP, please throw your trash away. Do not leave a soup container and a huge pile of crumbs that you expect the person who comes after you to have to clean up in order to use that table. No one else should have to clean up after you because you were too lazy or busy or entitled to do so. We have an enormous staff of dining workers and facility maintenance staff who clean up after us every single day. Do not make their jobs any harder by making a mess you do not think you are responsible for.

I am usually the one rolling my eyes when old people talk about how our generation has no manners but now I have become your grandmother. These suggestions are rooted in a sense of respect for others, but are more deeply rooted in having a sense of humility. We all get caught up in thinking only of ourselves now and then, but do not forget about the people you are surrounded by and the little things you can do to make their lives a little bit easier. By minding your manners and treating your friends and this campus with respect we can make the daily grind a little bit happier. Do not think that I will not call you out in public if I see you being impolite, Grandma White does not mess around.

On Sunday, the heat of the summer finally dissipated (hopefully for good). We were misled before with some semblance of fall weather a couple weeks yonder before another long stretch of humid days in the 90s. This weather increased the SLU community’s collective anticipation for one of the four most exciting seasons of the year: fall!

There are many reasons to love fall. Autumn provides a unique set of activities and adventures to enjoy. The sensory experiences of fall in the United States are unparalleled. The colorful sights, the superb smells and delicious tastes are all an integral part of the fall season. All of these reasons make The University News staff incredibly excited to begin the fall festivities.

From jumping in an enormous pile of fallen leaves someone spent hours raking, or enjoying the plethora of sports available in fall time, it is quite easy to see why we’re all so excited. The Cardinals are embarking on yet another glorious playoff run. Could the Cardinals find more magic, or could another rally rodent grace the Cardinal’s run this Red October? Meanwhile, your favorite collegiate or professional football team is hopefully having a more successful season than my St. Louis Rams- maybe next year.

Another thing to do and enjoy in the fall season is visit the regionally famous Eckert’s Farm. Pick some apples and pumpkins outside then go to the general store for cider, hot chocolate, interesting salsas that don’t have anything to do with autumn and other delectable delights!

The bounty of food during the fall season is voluminous enough for several term papers, but a couple paragraphs will have to make do. First there are the products of the plentiful fall harvest, including apples, squash, corn, cranberries and of course the coolest, most versatile variety of squash on the face of this planet: the great pumpkin.

Henry David Thoreau, an all-American writer and lover of the neatness of nature, famously said, “I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.” Other than being a handy chair, the pumpkin also has gobs of other uses: it’s a vital component of breakfast delights such as pumpkin chai lattes and pumpkin muffins, it can be used in soups and breads, their seeds make a great snack, jack-o-lanterns can be made out of them and they are the crucial ingredient to the pumpkin pie.

Jack-o-lanterns and pumpkin pie brings us to the holidays of fall. There’s Halloween, where SLU students, men and women alike, can dress scandalously and party all night. Then there’s Thanksgiving, where we all can give thanks that great-aunt Marge never saw the Facebook pictures from that crazy Halloween. More importantly, Thanksgiving is perhaps the only time before winter break that students can visit home and see their families.

According to the UNews, unlike that ridiculous calendar, fall has already begun. So we encourage every SLU student to enjoy the season by watching sports, picking food, making food and eating food.

Also do Henry a favor and take a seat on a pumpkin.

On the eve of Oct. 1, Congress was unable to pass a funding bill for many of its governmental agencies, causing a government shutdown to occur.

Until Congress can eventually pass the bill to fund many crucial government agencies, many sectors of the government will be closed and its workers will not be paid. Every national park is closed (including Yosemite National Park in California, which was unfortunately closed for its 123 birthday). All the national monuments are closed as well, which means no visits to the arch. Many overseas offices are also closed during this time. In all, 800,000 government workers are not being paid. The shutdown is also damaging the economy; IHS Inc., a global market research firm, estimates that at least $300 million is lost each day the shutdown continues. The firm also believes that the losses will continue to increase as the shutdown lengthens.

The government shutdown has received extensive media coverage over the past week. Students at SLU have taken notice, and the subject can be heard across campus. The world media is  also taking notice and shaking their heads that the world’s first modern democracy has allowed the situation in Congress to become so bad.

There are a few reasons why this regrettable and unnecessary situation has happened. The first is the rise of a small but influential group of Tea Party conservatives that have inextricably linked the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), with government funding. The second is a more systemic trend of inaction and partisanship in Congress.

Last week the New York Times noted how a powerful, but relatively unknown, group of hardline, conservative congressmen have managed to influence the House of Representatives and Speaker of the House John Boehner. This group stands in the way of Boehner, his large, more moderate republican contingent and a middle approach to the funding bill, instead only wanting to pass a funding bill if it includes dismantling or delaying Obamacare. Their influence has also allowed them to threaten Boehner’s job by aggressively campaigning that he has been soft towards Obamacare and other programs unpopular to conservatives. The oddest part of this group is that they are reveling their chance to influence Congress, and even think they are winning.

This attitude reflects larger concerns about Congress as a whole. In terms of passing legislation, this year’s session of Congress has been the least productive in decades. This inaction is due to an increasingly pervasive trend of partisanship. This partisanship can be seen in the last few hours before the deadline to pass the funding bill. After passing a funding bill tied to delaying the effects of Obamacare for one year, the House sent the bill to Senate. After 57 minutes and basically no debate, the democrat majority Senate rejected the House bill without any provisions or recommendations. Earlier in the week, Senate only took 25 minutes to reject an earlier funding bill.

It’s a ridiculous notion that Congress not only waits so long to deliberate over legislation crucial to the government’s proper functioning, but that it sends bills to the other house knowing full well that it won’t pass the other house of Congress. It is a dark time indeed when Congressmen and women are lauded not for their ability to compromise and pass crucial legislation, but for their impossible stubbornness.

Another showdown looms on Oct. 17 when Congress must raise the debt ceiling or incur a “globe-shaking default.” The most basic of tasks the members of Congress have been elected to do is to keep the government running. That is now what they must do. They must act.

Billikens, I have a confession. We all have our own guilty pleasures in this world and mine is reading the SLU Scoop every week in this very paper. I’ve been an avid reader of the UNews for three years, but no column, no article, no interview has given me greater joy than the SLU Scoop column. Food and music reviews are great and all but they do not make me cackle.

Whenever the SLU Scoop is featured I squeal with delight and then proceed to read it aloud to my friends, roommates, strangers, statues, squirrels, whoever is around at the moment. I then proceed to cut it out of the paper and hang it on my fridge to marvel at throughout the week like it is my third grade art project or a test I got an A on.

The comedy literally writes itself. elevator entrapments, accidental injuries, found quarters, stolen bath towels, non-criminal property damage, peace disturbances, fire alarms, untied Shoelaces, broken pinky swears. There is nothing more hilarious than reading about how someone’s bath towels were taken from the laundry room without a trace, or how two drunken students punched each other in the face on Laclede.

All of this makes me wonder, who, on instinct calls DPS when they break a fingernail?  Now I know there are, on occasion, serious news reported in this section. The occasional car break-in, theft, serious property damage, etc. are all important things to report to DPSEP and should help us all become more responsible Billikens. But, c’mon, someone slamming his or her ingers in a doorway in a residence hall is not an incident that requires DPSEP attention or news coverage.

This also begs the question, how often are DPSEP’s emergency phone lines tied up because someone is reporting something trivial, when there are people out there with real safety concerns or serious events going on that they need to report? If I get robbed and cannot get through to DPSEP because someone is trying to report stolen towels I will probably come by and steal their sheets as well.

If I were a better person, I would point my finger at all of you who report trivial things to DPSEP and tell you to stop doing it. But I’m not going to do that because I do not know how to live without the laughs from the SLU Scoop in my life.  I found myself rather upset that this past week was apparently a slow week for hitting our friends in the face with baseballs, because only three stories were featured. Three stories for campus of over 8,000 students? Really?  C’mon friends, do not hold out on us.

I might have to start calling DPSEP every time I spill my hot coffee on myself or burn myself on the oven or accidently trip on West Pine just so I have something to laugh about when the paper comes out.  In fact, I think we should all start reporting so much that the editors have to sift through all the reports to pick the best ones to print. I would love to see this campus band together and get fired up about campus safety. So stop, call and report, you $20 bill finders, laundry room police and paper cut sufferers. Without you I don’t get to laugh on Thursdays.

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.