Students, faculty and administration voiced their hopes for Portland State’s next president Friday afternoon in two forums held by officials from the search firm readying to seek out applicants.
About six students and around 45 staff and faculty members attended the meetings with representatives from Isaacson Miller, the national search firm in charge of replacing former PSU President Daniel O. Bernstine. Attendees expressed their thoughts on the school’s identity, direction and leadership needs at the meetings.
Brian Kronenfeld, a junior and international studies major, said that he hoped PSU could have a president who was sympathetic to the needs of short-changed faculty and students.
“We need someone here who is for supporting the needs of faculty and academics,” Kronenfeld said. “Our faculty is not fully invested in the process because they simply don’t get paid enough.”
Kronenfeld said he hoped the new president could align spending with areas that interest the majority of students and spend less on traditional areas like sports.
“I feel like we’re being robbed,” Kronenfeld said about students after the session. “I know we can’t do everything really well [at PSU], but if we’re going to do one thing really well it needs to be the academics.”
Faculty voiced similar ideas about the unique qualities of PSU, as well as a desire for the new president to inspire further growth and academic excellence.
Andrew Black, a computer science professor, said that he hopes the school can get back to offering students a solid education.
“We’ve tried to do so much with so few resources,” Black said regarding Bernstine’s time and leadership at PSU. “We need a president who can say ‘no’ and focus on a few opportunities without getting spread too thin.”
Representatives from the search firm said that they hoped to produce three or four candidates by spring for the search committee to consider and would recruit people in similar positions all over the country.
Once the presidential candidates have been chosen they will come to campus to meet with students, faculty and staff. The candidates will then be interviewed by the presidential selection committee, headed by State Board of Higher Education member James Francesconi. The 15-person committee is made up of PSU faculty and staff, as well as student body president Rudy Soto and members of the greater Portland community.