Student advisers to presidential committee selected
Members of the Student Advisory Committee, which will provide input to the presidential search committee, were selected yesterday. The Advisory Committee is compromised of nine members, including three committee chairs, Student Union President Andy Hogan '11 said. Three outreach coordinators have also been selected, according to Hogan.
The Student Advisory Committee was created in light of the Sept. 24 campuswide e-mail sent by University President Jehuda Reinharz announcing his intention to resign.
Reinharz will remain president until a new president has been selected or until June 30, 2011, according to a Sept. 24 University press release.
Board of Trustee members and faculty will be on the presidential search committee, Chairman of the Board of Trustees Malcolm Sherman told the Justice on Oct. 6. No students will be on the search committee, Hogan said.
Hogan, Union Junior Representative to the Board of Trustees Heddy Ben-Atar '11 and Union Senior Representative to the Board of Trustees Jonathan Kane '10 are the committee chairs of the Student Advisory Committee.
The other members of the committee are: Yuki Hasegawa (GRAD), Rachel Markman '10, Nicholas Hornstein '11, Rebecca Bachman '13, Marla Merchut '12 and Julian Olidort '11.
Andrew Gluck '11, Union Vice President Amanda Hecker '10, Megan Breslin-Jewer '11 and Jamie Fleischman '11 are the outreach coordinators.
The other six Advisory Committee members were selected after an interview last week with Hogan, Ben-Atar and Kane.
Outreach coordinators were selected by Hogan, Ben-Atar and Kane based on the same interview process, Gluck said.
"In selecting members for the committee we tried to select members of the committee that would represent all facets of the University, of the student body and I think we did a very good job," Hogan said. He added that all candidates who applied were qualified.
The committee may meet once a week and will initially hold townhall-style meetings at which students can express their opinions, Hogan said. The presidential search committee will be notified by the advisory committee of such student inputs, he said.
"There will probably be a lull where the search committee is working with the firm to find the next president and then toward the very end the committee will be working with the finalists to interview them," Hogan explained.
"I worked on the town halls last semester to do outreach for them and I think it did a good job of getting students aware of what was going on and getting their input. This committee can even take it up a few notches and do it even better in terms of making the campus aware of the search process and making sure that everyone's opinion is counted," Fleischman said.
Horstein said, "I've worked at several universities doing research in the past few years. I feel like I've been privileged to see how other universities operate, how their presidential structures work."
Regarding her expectations of a new president, Bachman said, "I hope for someone who is able to exemplify Brandeis' motto."
Faculty Senate Chair Prof. Sabine von Mering (GRALL) told the Justice last week that 20 faculty nominees out of 33 different candidates are willing to run for the two seats reserved for faculty on the Presidential Search Committee.
Von Mering also told the Justice last week that final faculty candidates for the search committee will be selected after negotiations with Sherman about increasing the number of faculty on the Committee are completed.
Von Mering had not spoken to Sherman by press time so did not wish to comment further. Sherman could not be reached for comment by press time.
Sherman told the Justice Oct. 6 that he hopes to form the Presidential Search Committee in time for Wednesday's Board meeting.
- Anya Bergman contributed reporting
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