Sadly, in my opinion, the quality of the candidate pool decreased as Uncle Joe (Dr. Joe Bertolino) took another presidential employment at a small state school in Vermont of 1,400 students. Bertolino will be the 15th President of Lyndon State College. Vermont State Colleges made the announcement February 19.
However, even though there are only five candidates left, the last presidential candidate, Dr. David Dauwalder, is a quality option for SRU’s leadership position. Dauwalder has an extensive national and international background and has experience beyond the eastern United States. In the past, Dauwalder has had professional experience in California, Arizona, and Connecticut and helped develop new international connections in China, Japan, and Taiwan.
If I could hire the next president of SRU, I would hire Dr. David and Mrs. Dauwalder (Marty) as co-presidents of SRU. I believe they would approve of this plan as both seemed to work together as a team during the open-forum interview Feb. 17. Mrs. Dauwalder even finished a phrase for Dr. Dauwalder when he forgot.
At the national level, Michelle Obama has a better approval rating than her significant other. She even has taken a key role in the re-election fundraising process. I feel Mrs. Dauwalder’s personality and education will make her an ideal person to help lead the fundraising campaign at SRU. Dr. Dauwalder’s business and academic background will make a president that could lead during the budget cuts and continue to enhance the academic quality at SRU.
However, if Dr. Dauwalder were to be the next president at SRU, my welcome gift to him would be a new green tie, as I was not a fan of his purple tie during his visit.
The next step in the hiring process will be nominating three candidates to the Chancellor’s office. However, with only five left, I look at this process as simply cutting two and sending on the rest to the next step. At the Chancellor’s office, we can only speculate what he might be looking at for in the next president at SRU. Will PASSHE Chancellor John Cavanaugh look at what is best for the PASSHE system, or for SRU? Will he look at the 14 state institutions and what is needed to compliment the other presidents in PASSHE?
I do not feel a strong attachment to any particular candidate. I feel every one of the candidates is qualified but no one is a stand out for the position. However, before we know it, one of these qualified leaders will be the next president at SRU.
