A forced task

As many IU students may be aware (even though many are quite unaware) the new IU president was announced Thursday at a press conference at IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis. The IU interim provost, Michael McRobbie, was selected by the board of trustees to be IU’s next leader.\nAfter his selection was announced, McRobbie addressed the audience, outlining several changes and initiatives he planned to implement after taking office. \nThe one idea that has the potential to have the greatest impact on student life seems to be McRobbie’s plan to set up dual task forces at both IUB and IUPUI. \nThe task forces would be both chaired and run entirely by students from the respective campuses. The goal of these task forces would be to “come up with a vision for student living and learning environments for the 21st century.” \nAccording to the plan, the recommendations of these task forces will be reported directly to the office of the president. McRobbie said the implementation of the task forces will be “one of the more significant things that we will do.” Among his top concerns is student life in the dorms.\nWhile we here at the Indiana Daily Student editorial board believe this concept has the potential to do a lot of good for campus – it has just as much, if not more, potential to not even make a blip on the student radar, effectively accomplishing nothing and allowing administration to hide behind their formation. \nFirst and foremost, McRobbie has to be involved in the process. It will not be effective to wave his hand and create one more essentially impotent bureaucratic entity in the sea of impotent bureaucratic entities that define higher education at a large research institution such as IU. \nMcRobbie needs to be active in every phase of this process. He proposed the idea. Next, he needs to oversee the forming of these task forces and the selection of their members in an efficient manner. \nHe also must make sure these task forces are given adequate freedom and resources to do their jobs effectively. What we don’t need is a repeat of what happened to the Council for Environmental Stewardship, which slowly received less and less administrative support and funding until it was forced to cease its activities.\nOur final plea to McRobbie: Please do not pull a Sue Talbot. One of the worst things he can do is to follow Talbot’s arrogant disregard for the opinion of students. Talbot’s concern, or lack thereof, for undergraduates can be most adequately expressed by this quote she made regarding the IU Student Association’s complaints about lack of undergraduate involvement in the presidential search: “We considered their suggestions, and no, we did not choose to involve them in the process.” We hope McRobbie does not hold the same sentiment.\nIf McRobbie is going to have a student task force, then he should genuinely consider the students’ suggestions and do his best to act on the information they give him. This is the best way to begin his new, and hopefully long, career as IU’s president.