Internal investigation

Forgive the cliche, but with great power comes great responsibility. In accordance with incoming President Michael McRobbie’s new contract, with a substantial pay-hike comes greater accountability. The details of McRobbie’s contract were made public last week, complete with some changes from President Adam Herbert’s contract including a $40,000 pay increase (making his salary about average among similarly-sized schools) and basic annual reviews by the board of trustees. Every five years, McRobbie will be put through an even more rigorous review. According to Indiana Daily Student reports, the faculty are pleased with these developments since all the faculty are required to go through annual reviews, it’s only fair that their leader is also held accountable.\nThe editorial board also believes that both the pay raise and the heightened accountability for our new president are excellent decisions for the future of IU. With as big a responsibility as running a major research institution and with the size of the salary he can expect, a yearly review to ensure that his goals and actions align with those envisioned by the trustees is a logical decision. This annual check-in with the trustees would be greatly beneficial in streamlining the administrative process. Oversight can only be good for everyone affected by the president’s decision-making.\nWe do not want the presidency to be a nominal position, with McRobbie being some sort of idle figurehead. Rather, we desire that the head of our University – especially in consideration of the substantial salary McRobbie will receive – to be a leader who serves the University and conducts himself in a manner that best facilitates the goals of the University as a whole. In solidarity with this vision for our president, it appears that the framers of McRobbie’s contract have inserted this “annual review” clause to monitor his commitment to University objectives closer than presidents in the past.\nThis is an admirable step toward better communication between University bureaucrats, promoting a unified vision for the future of the University, facilitating greater transparency in the bureaucratic process, and lessening the potential for power abuse by institutionalizing presidential accountability. These annual reviews don’t have to be a brutal process, but should be effective as a friendly check-in, as the contract states, consider “the achievements and the accomplishments of the president in meeting or making progress toward the goals, objectives and priorities” of the University.\nThe fact that the intensive review will occur every five years, coinciding with the potential renewal of McRobbie’s contract, is also a fair and logical decision for the relationship between the president and trustees. The occasional deep bureaucratic audit is vital to running a smooth operation, but by not doing it every single year, it prevents the trustees from lording an inordinate amount of power over the president.\nUnder this novel policy of reviews, we hope that this unprecedented amount of communication and the fresh energy McRobbie brings to the position will help his tenure as president be a dynamic time of great growth and advancement for the University.