The day when Slippery Rock finds out who its next president will be is fast approaching. With the on-campus visits and open interviews completed last week, all that is left is for the search committee to submit two names to the council of trustees, who will send a recommendation to the PASSHE board of governors, who will make the final decision on SRU’s next president. While the Rocket staff has no more information or influence on who will be president, we do have a sort of “wish-list” as to what we are hopping for in the new president.
The Rocket staff believes that whoever the next president of SRU is chosen to be there are certain characteristics that we would like them to have.
SRU’s next president should be transparent, and open with students, faculty and alumni about what is happening at SRU, what they are working on and what new things might be coming up in the future.
With so many alumni expected to be coming to campus for homecoming next week, more than one will probably be wondering why Miller auditorium is still closed, what happened to Kraus hall and why buildings like the behavioral science building are closed. If there are plans in the work for projects like these in the future the new president should be completely open about them, one because SRU is a public university and two because students, faculty and alum have a right to know what is happening on campus.
The Rocket staff also believes that the next president should show an unending support for the students at Slippery Rock and the things they do. It is easy for a president to show up to the football games on Saturdays and wave to the student section, but the rocket staff thinks the new president needs to go farther than that. Interim president Philip Way has done a good job of this in his time thus far, walking around campus, attending events, putting on events at the president’s residence and just generally being a visible figure around campus.
Whoever SRU’s next president ends up being should go to every sporting event, concert, festival, student run event, etc. that they can, because students need to know that their president supports them and the things they are doing.
While whoever is ultimately chosen should be the person with the best qualifications, the most experience and will be the best fit at SRU, these are the little, more personal, things the Rocket staff thinks the new president should do in order to be as successful as possible.
