Students won’t join search committee

Despite recommendations from student leaders, the group searching for President Steven B. Sample’s successor has decided not to add students to the search committee.

Though members of the Presidential Search Advisory Committee have held sessions with student groups to gather student input, there is no student representation on the committee. This has raised concern among some students and prompted the Undergraduate Student Government to pass a resolution recommending the addition of students to the committee, which currently includes seven trustees and six faculty members.

But even in light of the recommendations from USG and the Graduate and Professional Student Senate, the search committee announced in a leader to the student government presidents that they will not change their process, citing confidentiality, among other reasons.

“We were bummed when we heard that they didn’t want to change their process,” USG President Holden Slusher said.

The last presidential search in 1991 did  include students on the search committee.

But in a recent letter to Johannes Schmitt — the president of GPSS — and Slusher, the Board of Trustees Chairman Edward P. Roski Jr. wrote, “every institution seeks input in a different way, depending on the conditions that exist at the time,” and they “appreciate” the resolution.

Previously, Roski told the Daily Trojan that it was “important” to get student input and that the committee was “making every effort to include student viewpoints.”

Slusher said USG was thankful for the sessions, but  “hopes that student interests were always number one.”

“We trust the trustees in their decision,” Slusher said. “And we understand that there is more to it than what students want.”