The presidential search was discussed in depth at the Faculty Senate meeting Wednesday.

A new policy for joint appointed faculty members was recommended for the University Council and the Student Association (SA) asked for the faculty’s support in improving the Student Recreation Center.

Alan Rosenbaum, president of the Faculty Senate and co-chair of the Presidential Search Advisory Committee (PSAC), briefed the members on how the committee narrowed the field from about 50 down to four.

Rosenbaum said the Board of Trustees met in closed session on Tuesday and possibly selected a candidate. He said an announcement of the new president could be made as early as this week.

Rosenbaum also accused the Northern Star of poor journalism for running an editorial asking the presidential candidates to come forward. He said it was an attempt to make headlines.

“I think it was irresponsible of them [the Editorial Board] to come forward with an editorial like that when there are many good reasons and they didn’t really do much research,” Rosenbaum said. “They were told by there own students that this was a good way to do it.” Rosenbaum cited a letter to the editor by SA Senator Michael Theodore, and he said the three students on the PSAC weren’t consulted before the editorial was published.

Rosenbaum also said open forums wouldn’t have added much to the process and that the PSAC was heeding the advice of the search firm it hired.

“Had they had an open forum, what would happen?” Rosenbaum said. “You’d have people that like them and people that don’t, what would the board do with that? They’re not going to put it to a vote, so it’s really just a curiosity. It’s not so much something that has value in making the decision, an open forum, it’s just a curiosity.”

Rosenbaum also noted that all stakeholders, including students, were represented in the search and met with the candidates. Everyone involved in the search was sworn to secrecy and confidentiality.

Milivoje Kostic, PSAC member and professor of mechanical engineering, spoke about the lack of transparency in the committee.

“My opinion is that at some point things need to be public,” Kostic said, “It’s a choice yes or no, but there is a weighted benefit to be public.”

Kostic added that once there were only four candidates they could have made an appearance on campus and been exposed to the university community.

Bradrick Cripe, accountancy professor and chair of the faculty rights and responsibilities committee, reported on the recommendations made by the committee in regard to an issue of joint appointments. A joint appointment is when a faculty member is split between two departments, or a department and a university center, and problems can arise when only one department decides to grant tenure, Rosenbaum said. The committee’s report featured suggested changes to the university bylaws that define how joint appointments are to be handled. The proposed changes were approved by the Faculty Senate with a vote of 20 to 11 and will now be recommended to the University Council, which will either adopt or reject them.

Anthropology professor Michael Kolb gave a short presentation on the faculty fund, a faculty-generated fund which provides merit-based scholarships for incoming freshmen. Kolb said the fund has no overhead or expenses and virtually all of the money raised goes into scholarships.

SA Senate Speaker James Zanayed gave a report detailing what the SA has been working on and encouraged the faculty to support the SA’s campaign to improve for the Student Recreation Center.

“We’ve been working with Sandi Carlisle, the director of Campus Recreation Services, and we’ve seen points and statistics that show our Rec Center is just not adequate for the students,” Zanayed said. “An adequate Rec Center is a very important object to [incoming students].”

Zanayed acknowledged that the Faculty Senate couldn’t fund the improvements but noted it is a very powerful constituent group on campus and its support could make a difference.

“Schools across the MAC and schools in this state have updated their Rec Centers, and if we want to compete in enrollment with these schools, we have to update our Rec Center and when it comes to improving our enrollment for Vision 2020,” Zanayed said.