Author: Kendra Dority
President Skotheim and Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees John Farmer addressed the General Assembly on Tuesday, April 29 to discuss the methodology of the upcoming search for a long-term president of the College.
Skotheim introduced Farmer, who has been selected by the Board of Trustees to chair the search committee. “The structure of a search is that, increasingly over the decades, larger groups within the campus community want to know what’s going on,” Skotheim said, explaining why he and Farmer wanted to address the GA. “There was a time when there was a laying on of hands and a president appeared [ . . . ] Now the process is a more open one.”
Farmer explained that the search committee is composed of five trustees who have had experiences with similar searches, five faculty members who have not yet been appointed, Dean of Students Barbara Avery, and two students, Monica Espinoza (sophomore) and Patrick McCredie (junior). Committee supporters will be President Skotheim, Chair of the Board of Trustees Dennis Collins and consultant Stanton Hales. “This will be different from the normal search where an institution will hire a search firm,” Farmer said. Trustees and faculty members will be instrumental in locating interested candidates. “A faculty member or a trustee can talk more passionately about the College than a head-hunter can,” he said.
In addition to seeking out candidates at small liberal arts colleges in the Midwest and on the east coast, the search committee will also put out advertisements in appropriate publications and consider any in-house recommendations as well. “Our intention is to not exclude anyone from consideration,” he said.
Farmer said the search committee will begin this summer to build a pool of candidates and then narrow down the pool in October and November. He termed December and January the “quarter-finals.” February will involve candidate interviews with the entire committee as well as candidate presentations to the campus community.
The search committee will convene at another meeting toward the end of September to inform the community about the progress of the search. “We will not disclose names of candidates we are considering,” Farmer said. “But we will be specific with numbers to keep the student body informed.” After presenting the methodology of the presidential search, Farmer explained what the committee is looking for in a candidate. “The new president must be equally qualified to serve as both the chief executive officer and the chief administrative officer of the College, and as the academic leader of the institution,” Farmer said. “This dual role requires the ability to grasp the essence of Oxy, its history, culture, tradition [. . .] and a commitment to perpetuate Oxy’s unique mission.”
Ryan Bowen (senior) asked about whether the search committee would be looking for a candidate within the business sector in order to secure a president who can fund-raise effectively. Farmer agreed that fundraising is important at Oxy, but said the committee would not simply be looking for someone in the business sector. “I’m a businessman, and I couldn’t run Oxy,” he said. “I also think that the president has to have a terminal degree, has to be a serious scholar to have the respect of the faculty.”
Erica Johnson (senior) expressed her desire to see an emphasis on stability in the new president. “We need someone who’s committed to being here through the hard times,” she said.
Farmer said stability would be an important part of the search process. “We will be portraying this as an opportunity to build on the strength of Oxy and take it to the next level. That takes time,” he said. “[We are looking for] someone who can commit to the institution for something like 10 to 12 years.”Renoa Batista (first-year) asked Farmer about how the Board of Trustees will assess the trait of accountability in the new presidential candidates. Farmer said the process of holding the president accountable is a collaborative effort between the president and Board in which they compare goals and objectives with actual results, thus weighing performance levels. “This business is not mathematical-there’s subjectivity and judgment to it-and some goals cannot be accomplished in a year,” he said.
Farmer then referenced Johnson’s comment from earlier in the meeting. “In spite of the fact that [Johnson] said we had four presidents in four years, I think we did a pretty good job of keeping the presidents on point.”
The GA meeting on Thursday, April 24 included a presentation evaluating the operations of the student government, as well as a review of the progress of Board of Trustees committees from student representatives.
Spencer Jemelka (senior), one of the three authors of the Constitution of the Occidental Student Government, gave a presentation comparing the way the authors intended for student government to run and how the government is running now. “Our main intent was to make the GA the decision-making body on campus,” Jemelka said. The Senate, he said, was designed to make financial decisions, while the General Assembly is where the major decisions should be taking place.
“Any issue can be taken to the GA in the form of a resolution,” Jemelka said, adding that resolutions could then become the modus of change. He said he currently sees the resolution as underutilized, but that it is intended to be an integral part of a consensus-building process which will allow student voices to be heard.
Jemelka pointed to disparities between statements on the ASOC website (asoc.oxy.edu) and the constitutional document itself. He said the Senate website declares Senate as “the principal arm of student government,” and lists its primary objective as “identifying and acting upon student needs.” “It is not the duty of the Senate to find student needs,” Jemelka said, demonstrating that this is the duty of the GA.
Three student representatives to Board of Trustees committees also addressed the GA. Student Representative to the Investment Committee Aaron Mass (senior) updated the GA on the College’s endowment. He said the endowment has gone down because of the current economic downfall, but the school has seen a 19 percent return on its endowments since last year. He said the committee is looking to change their allocations to more stable companies, since institutions like investment banks and mortgage banks have suffered from the current economic situation.
Mass suggested these committee meetings be more interactive in the future, suggesting that student representatives present their ideas of where the College should invest some of its endowment funds.
At this meeting, Honor Board Chair Abe Cohen (senior) presented a resolution to amend the Honor Board By-Laws to allow for the publicity of infractions of ASOC representatives committed while they are acting in their official capacity.
Currently, Honor Board jurors are not allowed to disclose information about the nature of a case after the case has occurred. Cohen proposed that infractions by ASOC representatives should be publicized because this will help to preserve transparency. “This is specific to ASOC representatives in their official capacity,” Cohen said. “If these representatives are using their official capacity to take unfair advantage of other students, then these infractions will be publicized.”
Voting for this resolution, as well as for a resolution to reinstate free newspaper delivery on campus, will take place at a short GA meeting Thursday, May 1.
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