Talbot elected as trustee

Sue Talbot has had a very busy weekend.\nAs chair of this weekend's Bloomington "Picnic with the Pops," Talbot didn't have time to keep track of the IU alumni trustee election results being tallied Saturday. But while on a break during field set-up for the event, a friend who was monitoring the results for her brought her the good news -- she had won.\n"I was almost non-believing at first," Talbot said. "And I was very pleased."\nAs she has a right to be.\nGarnering 6,429 out of 34,502 votes cast, Talbot has triumphed in one of the most highly contested trustee elections in recent history, beating out incumbent Ray Richardson and six other candidates for the three-year position. More than 400,000 ballots were mailed out to IU alumni in May.\n"I offer Sue my heartiest congratulations and look forward to working with her and the entire board as we work to preserve the greatness of Indiana University," President Myles Brand said in a statement. \nTalbot said she also has received support from the trustees since she has been elected.\n"I know them all at least casually, and several of them have contacted me with congratulations," she said. "I look forward to working with all of them."\nAnd Talbot, who received her bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in education from IU, is fully prepared for the work ahead. She has served as the former Director of Alumni Education Programs and president of the IU Alumni Association and is a founding director of Hoosiers for Higher Education. She also served as a special assistant to Gov. Robert Orr from 1986 to 1988 and has worked as an elementary school teacher in Bloomington for 20 years. Talbot said she believes her many experiences will aide her as she steps into her knew position.\n"It's going to assist me in learning the responsibilities of being a trustee," she said. "I'm not coming into it cold."\nAnd, she said, something else she's not going into it with is any set agenda.\n"The essence of what I'm telling everyone is that I'm not going in to hire/fire anyone, I'm going in to really do a good job as a team member on the board," Talbot said. "I do not have a personal agenda. I am wanting to serve the University in the best capacity possible as a trustee."\nAnd, Talbot said from years of experience on countless boards, she's found that teamwork is what it's all about.\n"I think that the thing that people need to know is when you have a nine-member board, no one makes the decisions independently," she said. "...It's the consensus building body of the people. I'm a known consensus builder and hope to use those skills."\nTalbot said the biggest part of being a consensus builder is making sure people feel comfortable bringing issues to her.\n"If people come to me, students, staff, alumni, faculty, with concerns I'll listen to them and engage in trying to help them find solutions," she said. "I'm very accessible"