Three University of Oregon students have been tasked with representing 24,548 student voices for the current presidential search. Easy, right?
There are many stakeholders in the university’s current presidential search. Connie Ballmer, who leads the presidential search committee, recently appointed 14 members to an advisory committee, known as the Presidential Search Advisory Committee.
The committee includes three students: Beatriz Gutierrez, Kate Karfilis and Brennan Heller.
“Our first goal with the advisory group was to ensure broad representation from a variety of stakeholder groups,” Ballmer said. “Once those key constituencies were identified, we sought input from a number of people around campus who interact with those groups to get recommendations about individuals known for being thoughtful, engaged and creative.”
Ballmer described Gutierrez as a natural choice for the committee. As ASUO president, Gutierrez works with the Board of Trustees and has lobbied for more student involvement with the presidential search.
Gutierrez is the one who asked Board of Trustees’ chair Chuck Lillis to add more students to the advisory committee. Originally, the board only had one spot for an undergraduate student and one for a graduate student.
“Chair Lillis met with Bea, she made the suggestion to add a third student, specifically another undergraduate student. That made perfect sense to us,” Ballmer said. “As Bea pointed out, she represents all students in her role as president of the student body, so having someone focused on undergrads along with someone focused on graduate students made sense.”
Gutierrez emphasized that the next UO president should have a sense of the student experience.
“We are the majority here. We pay for this institution to function so it’s really important that we’re involved in those processes and decisions,” Gutierrez said.
Karfilis is the graduate student representative on the committee. A fifth year graduate student studying molecular biology, Karfilis also has leadership experience serving as the president of the UO Women in Graduate Sciences.
“Understanding the needs of graduate students in general is something that I know well,” Karfilis said.
Karfilis wants the presidential search committee to consider a woman for the position. She also hopes that the new president will prioritize high caliber research at the University of Oregon.
“The UO has phenomenal faculty researchers doing exciting work, and great graduate programs to go along with that,” Karfilis said. “And so I would love to see the new president be excited and interested in working with the research institutes here to make Oregon a top research institution.”
Heller was the third student added to the committee.
“Brennan brought a nice cross-section of experience,” Ballmer said. “He’s a sophomore with a different academic focus than the other two, he has experience in residence life work and he’s a student leader in one of UO’s most successful programs (the Clark Honors College).”
The three students and other 11 members of the advisory committee are required to keep the presidential candidates confidential. The committee plans to hold an event as early as November to hear from the public.
“We’re trying to figure out a best time and date to do a public forum,” Gutierrez said. “Where people can let us know what they’re looking for in a president, kind of like an advisory to the student representatives.”
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