Students raise concern over committee representation

With a national search for a men’s basketball coach already underway, many student leaders wonder whether their input will be considered for the high-profile hire. \nSome student leaders said years of campus indifference have led administrators to largely discount the student voice. Low voter turnouts at IU Student Association elections and organizations’ widespread inability to unify interests have left students without a seat at the table, leaders said. But IU officials claim students’ opinions will still be heard, even though they believe students don’t have the necessary experience to sit on such a committee.\nThe 10-member basketball coach search committee does not include a student.\nInitially, IUSA President W.T. Wright was troubled by the lack of student representation, but after correspondence with IU President Michael McRobbie, Wright softened his stance on the issue.\nOn Tuesday, Wright sent an e-mail to McRobbie, who appointed the committee, to express his disappointment that a student is not on the search committee. \n“I was certainly excited this morning to read the announcement of the formation of a 10-member committee to search for a new basketball coach; my only concern is there has been no announcement of a student representative on said committee,” Wright wrote to McRobbie.\nIn a phone interview Tuesday, Wright said he hoped students might still be able to sit on the committee.\n“At this point, I think this is a legitimate concern for students that there is no student representation on this committee,” Wright said.\nBut on Wednesday, shortly after he received a response from McRobbie, Wright said he was pleased with the way the administration was handling the situation.\nIn his e-mail, McRobbie said he welcomes all student input into the selection of a new basketball coach. \n“My goal in forming this committee has been to keep it small and for it to consist of people with the expertise necessary to carry out this search,” McRobbie wrote, adding he believed the students were adequately represented on the University Athletics Committee, on which Wright sits. McRobbie asked search committee and University Athletics Committee members James Wimbush and Bruce Jaffee to meet with Wright and other student leaders.\n“I’m satisfied that they’re reaching out to students,” Wright said. “I commend them on that.”\nUniversity Chancellor Ken Gros Louis said he was surprised no student was selected to assist the committee.\nBrian Bulgatz, creator of Facebook group “The Hall Monitors,” which advocates more student involvement at basketball games, said he was troubled by the lack of a student voice. \n“I was absolutely disappointed to see there was no student represented,” Bulgatz said. “Am I surprised? No. The IU administration seems to have a knack for ignoring the IU student leaders.”\nMcRobbie declined an interview request with the Indiana Daily Student through IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre, but MacIntyre said McRobbie carefully crafted the 10-member panel. \n“He doesn’t shoot from the hip,” MacIntyre said. “The President recognizes that this particular position is one that everybody in Indiana (and) all of our alumni will be paying attention to, and he really wants to get it right. A lot of the people on the committee have a lot of expertise on hiring and searches and what our traditions are.”\nWright said Wednesday he did not believe any student had the experience necessary to serve on that committee. \nIt’s the second time in less than two years students were not included in the search committee for a high-profile hire. Last year’s Presidential Search Committee, the group that picked McRobbie to succeed Adam Herbert, did not include a student from the Bloomington campus. Michael Renfrow, a graduate student from IU-South Bend, was the lone student to serve on that committee. \nFormer IUSA President Betsy Henke led an unsuccessful charge to try to seat another student on that search committee. \nMacIntyre insisted McRobbie is interested in hearing the student voice. McRobbie works closely with a student planning group called the Student VOICE Project, hosts several open office hours during which students can approach him and answers all student e-mails, MacIntyre said.\n“When he became president, he deliberately set out to make sure he was in contact with students and in tune with the student voice,” MacIntyre said. “But he intended to do that on a much broader spectrum than just the basketball coach.”\nStudent trustee A.D. King said he hopes students can demand similar representation regarding academic decisions and used last year’s presidential search committee as an example. \n“That’s where our vigilance should be,” King said. \nThe three IUSA presidential candidates said they all believed the lack of student representation was unfortunate, but they all attributed the lack of student representation to apathy on campus. \nWith IUSA elections next week, all candidates stressed the need for the administration to hear students’ voices. \nLuke Fields, presidential candidate for the Big Red ticket, said he believes IUSA needs to galvanize students and engage them in University matters. \n“I’m surprised in that the University continually struggles to give us any voice,” Fields said. “But at the same time, I think this is part of the problem of student apathy on campus where we aren’t voicing our opinion where we should be.”\nFellow IUSA Presidential candidate Joe Weis of the Kirkwood Ticket agreed that student apathy might play a large part in the lack of student representation in University matters. \n“The University is here for the students,” Weis said. “If the students show their interest, I think the administration will have no choice but to listen to the voice of the students.”\nDavid White, IUSA presidential candidate for the INdiana ticket, said he believed the decision to name the next men’s basketball coach is an executive decision, but that doesn’t mean students can’t help. \n“I think it’s a good example of a way that IU could really improve communicating,” White said. “It’s too easy to involve a student in this not to do it.”\nUltimately, it’s that lack of student interest and expertise that keeps students off such committees, King said. \n“I’ll be honest, I want the best and most knowledgeable people selecting our next basketball coach,” he sa id. “Right now, I don’t know if there are a lot of students in that position.”\n-Special projects editor Brian Spegele contributed to this report