In the March 11 issue of The Spectrum, an article appeared on the front page detailing the rules allegedly violated by the Presidential Search Committee in its quest to find a worthy successor for the departing president, John B. Simpson.
Specifically, the piece discussed the fact that even though the committee claimed that it had narrowed its search to the final candidates, it had not revealed them to the public, which the guidelines recommend it to do.
This might have caused more of an uproar on campus were it not for two factors: One, the story came out the day before spring break, so many were thinking about anything but UB. Two, last Thursday, SUNY chancellor Nancy Zimpher made her decision to recommend Satish K. Tripathi, the current provost, to the SUNY Board of Trustees for the position of president.
Normally this would be the part of the editorial where we would discuss Tripathi's qualifications and determine whether or not he truly deserves to be the next president of the University at Buffalo.
Unfortunately, we don't officially know much about why the committee selected him. We also don't know anything about his leadership skills, or why the committee thought he was more qualified than the other candidates. After all, we don't even know who the other candidates were.
This is where the lack of transparency by the search committee is really problematic. If students knew who was in the running, and were able to vocalize their opinions about the candidates, it would be a lot easier to accept a new president.
Consider this: 68 people were in the running to be the next president, yet we don't know who 67 of them were. It's all clouded in mystery.
Granted, some anonymity is understandable. If candidates who have jobs at other colleges are announced, it could lead to them losing their current position. We understand that fear.
Still, what's more important: protecting the interests of university officials, or letting students know what is taking place within their public school's administration?
We just wish we were more informed about what went on instead of simply having to trust that the committee made the right choice.
There has been speculation that UB is looking to become more like a private school, primarily evidenced by its desire to control tuition rates without input from SUNY.
The fact that the search for its next president was conducted by a billionaire businessman (Jeremy Jacobs) far away from the public and led to the selection of a person who is known as a proponent of UB 2020 will only add to those suspicions. More people are going to wonder what is really going on.
To be clear, The Spectrum is not saying this is the case, nor are we saying Tripathi shouldn't have been chosen. We simply believe that for the good of the students, as well as the university's reputation, transparency would have been a better choice.
