Painter Stone – Staff Writer
One member of the university community used a model spine to emphasize his suggestion to pick a president with “some backbone.”
Donal O’Toole, former UW Faculty Senate Chair, said, “This is a state with a lot of very engaged workers, and it is important the president knows how to say both yes and no.”
O’Toole was one of several individuals gathered to provide input at the first of three listening sessions Sept. 10 to gather suggestions on the ongoing UW presidential search. Board of Trustee John McPherson moderated this session alongside the 16-member search committee assigned to finding the new president.
He also asked what the process was going to cost.
“We have gone through three presidencies that in various ways have failed,” he said. “One thing I want to say is: We can’t afford a failed fourth presidency.”
He said he has been to many listening sessions before and thinks of them as kind of “window dressing” saying that he doubts that there is a lot of listening going on.
O’Toole said he believes universities are “not to produce work ready employees. It’s to produce educated, questioning and engaged people in the job force.”
Mark Northam, School of Energy Resource Executive Director, said “I am not an academic. I am one of those people who believes that the president or CEO of an organization needs to be focused on the running of the business.”
He said other states “are decades ahead of us in terms of reducing state support for the universities.”
He used Colorado State University as an example. “They’ve lost a bulk of their state support and yet they’re still making diverse programs,” he said.
Sandy Hoy Helzer, a Greek advisory board member for Kappa Kappa Gamma, said the board should consider a president with “respect for the traditions of the University of Wyoming of student involvement and respect for the traditional of Greek living, and also respect for the tradition of Fraternity and Sorority life.”
Board of Trustees Chairman Dave True said they hope to have three to four finalists by December but they intend to take as much time as needed to make the right decision.
The second listening session on UW’s campus will be Sept. 24 and a third will be in Casper Sept. 25. All of the sessions will be broadcast through Wyocast for those who cannot make it.
