IUB students fight for extra seat on search committee

Student leaders are petitioning the IU board of trustees for a larger part in the search for IU's next president.\nMembers of the IU Student Association, Residence Halls Association, the greek community and other campus groups will present a letter to the board this week voicing concerns that the only student member of the recently appointed Presidential Search Committee is Michael Renfrow, a graduate student from IU-South Bend.\n"We are concerned because the IUB campus is primarily undergrad," RHA President Matt Jarson said. "I don't believe a graduate student at the South Bend campus who has never lived in a residence hall or taken a class here can fully represent Bloomington."\nThe groups initially asked that an undergraduate student from IUB join the search committee, but the trustees didn't concede.\n"We understand that a wider range of students want to be involved, but they need to understand that we have already started the process of appointing the committee and that is what it's going to be," said trustee Sue Talbot, who is chairing the committee.\nAt an Aug. 18 conference, the Association of Big Ten Students passed a motion 8-0 with three abstaining in support of IUSA seeking "adequate representation (that) should, at a very minimum include a student representative from a traditional, flagship campus."\nIn a letter addressed to IUSA issued last week, Talbot reminded the student government that Renfrow is not the only student that will have input in the presidential search.\nAs the committee narrows down its finalists, student trustee Casey Cox will have some say in the selection.\nCox is a third-year law student on the Bloomington campus, as well as a former IUSA president.\nIUSA, however, said it does not feel Cox can represent IUB as well as some other students.\n"Casey is not a voting member of the search committee," IUSA Vice President Andrew Lauck said. "And he's still a grad student. Plus, his role as a trustee is not to do what students want but to serve all taxpayers."\nStudents can still get involved in the process by contacting the trustees or attending any of the public forums on the presidential search later this year.\n"We're not taking this lightly, but I don't think this is a major issue," she said. "Students are important to us, and this is not an effort to close them out."\nThe search committee will meet for the first time as a group Sept. 13 at the IU-Purdue University Indianapolis Conference Center.\nCurrent IU President Adam Herbert said in June he would consider stepping down before his contract runs out in 2008 if a replacement is found before then.