Few students showed up at the presidential open forums the past four weeks, let alone met or spoke with any of the finalists.
But, a small group of student leaders attended each of the open forums and personally talked to the contenders about
student affairs.
Those students were ASUI President Max Cowan, GPSA President Kate Cobb, ASUI Sen. Nathan Fisher and ASUI Elections Coordinator
Tanner Beymer.
The four students wanted to ensure the State Board of Education heard their voices in the decision-making process.
Cowan, Cobb, Fisher and Beymer decided to write a letter to the SBOE outlining each finalist’s weaknesses and strengths, as well as endorse three of the candidates — Jack Payne, James Applegate
and Laurie Stenberg Nichols.
“Honestly, I feel like I should have been included more in the process,” Cobb said. “The SBOE, as far as I know, only had one student on the search committee, former ASUI President Hannah Davis. I feel like if they wanted a better representation of the students, they should have had at least one undergrad, one grad and one law student on the
search committee.”
Cowan said although the candidates have been assessed in many ways during the search process, more student feedback should be put into the decision.
“We want to make sure there is some student voice in the decision about who should be the next president at the University of Idaho,” Cowan said. “What we thought would be beneficial is if we put together our individual thoughts in a
meaningful way.”
Fisher said he felt it was his duty to represent the student body and his opinion is reflective of what he thinks most students would think about
the candidates.
“I’m hoping that our letter reflects our perceptions of the candidates,” Fisher said. “I think we should have a considerable say in who is chosen as president because it’s going to directly affect us certainly, but it will affect faculty too and we need to understand that, but I don’t want our voice and input to be ignored in
the situation.”
Donald Birx
Donald Birx was the first of the five finalists to visit campus and was not endorsed by Cowan, Cobb, Fisher and Beymer in the letter intended to impact
SBOE’s decision.
Cowan recognized Birx came across as intelligent and organized, but he thought Birx showed less enthusiasm than some of the other candidates.
“There was nothing that I saw from what Birx shared that made me terribly excited,” Cowan said. “From the materials I was able to review of him, I thought he lacked the inspirational quality that I would like to see from a
university president.”
Fisher said Birx didn’t impress him because he didn’t address any particular issues at UI, indicating that perhaps he didn’t do
his research.
“He gave very general answers. It almost kind of came off like politicians’ answers,” Fisher said. “He didn’t really delve into specifics nor did he really articulate exactly what it was that I think he was going to focus on as a
university president.”
Cobb said she did not think Birx had the communication skills the next UI president would need in order to improve UI’s image in the state of Idaho.
“I couldn’t see him standing up in front of the SBOE or the legislature like a president of UI would have to,” Cobb said.
Jack Payne
The second candidate, Jack Payne, made it into the students’ top three candidates.
Beymer said he liked Payne because of his list of successful ventures at other higher education institutions that would directly benefit UI.
“He was able to keep his university at close to their operating cost before there were cuts from the state,” Beymer said. “I think that’s another thing someone who’s coming to the University of Idaho needs to have, is you know, a go-getter attitude. Payne definitely had that.”
Not only do the students think Payne had enough experience in professional work, but Fisher said Payne was a noticeably good communicator with students.
“What I really liked about him is he seemed more genuine — particularly with students,” Fisher said. “He was very interested to meet (students), he was ready to shake hands –really just participate in a discussion
with us.”
Another strength the students acknowledged of Payne was his experience in agriculture.
Cobb said while they endorsed Payne in the letter, she felt like he may not be the perfect president for UI because of his broad scope.
“I feel like he had really great ideas at what he wanted to do,” Cobb said. “But for me, they seemed too big for a university like UI. The ideas seemed like they fit more at where he currently is, at University of Florida, which is a much, much
bigger university.”
James Applegate
James Applegate visited campus Oct. 22 and brought communication skills he attained in his previous jobs at the National Communication Association and the Lumina Foundation with him.
Beymer said after seeing Applegate’s communication skills, he knows Applegate would do the university well in speaking with the state legislature
or SBOE.
“For me personally, I have done a lot of work in the legislature and I have seen the way university presidents interact with the education committees in both the house and the senate,” Beymer said. “To me, communication and people skills is my number one priority and Applegate met my expectations.”
Cowan said it was apparent Applegate did his homework before coming to Moscow.
“Applegate had some very well-reasoned responses. I thought his answers to questions were specific and insightful,” Cowan said. “He came across as very academic, which I think is a positive within the university community. We do want someone who is academic and collegiate, and Applegate is both of those.”
Fisher said Applegate was a strong critical thinker and it was noticeable to those who asked him questions. But, Fisher said he was a little worried how long it took Applegate to relay answers back.
“I asked him a question particularly about Greek life,” Fisher said. “I was a little nervous at first, he kind of went off on a tangent and then incorporated so many different aspects into his answer to come back into one concrete answer that you could really see the thought process he goes through when asked
a question.”
Chuck Staben
Chuck Staben was the fourth finalist to visit campus, but did not impress the student leaders.
Cobb said while most in the audience seemed to enjoy Staben, she thought he would make an excellent provost — which is his current position at the University of South Dakota.
“He was very approachable,” Cobb said. “I wasn’t afraid to ask him questions. But he seemed too candid for me in the given situation. Staben — again like Dr. Birx — I couldn’t see him going in front of the SBOE.”
Beymer said his impression of Staben was that he was someone who had a lot of experience and was very personable, but perhaps cracked one too many jokes during his open form.
“He just didn’t take things as seriously as we would have hoped,” Beymer said. “There is a place for that, but if that’s the majority of your presentation, you need to rethink
your priorities.”
Knowing how important a charismatic personality is for a university president, Cowan said he felt indifferent about Staben’s open forum.
“I thought he would be a good choice. There was nothing wrong, but I left his open forum wishing I had a stronger feeling of excitement,” Cowan said.
Laurie Stenberg Nichols
Laurie Stenberg Nichols was the final candidate to visit campus and the final candidate to be endorsed by the student leaders because they said she had a very likable and
clever personality.
Cobb said because Nichols would be coming from a similarly sized land-grant university, it would be an easy transition for her to come to UI.
“I liked the fact that in her current position, she is already thinking of us as a peer institute to where she is now,” Cobb said. “She already knows a lot of our stats and she already knows who we compare to and what we could be capable of.”
Fisher said he liked that Nichols is both a former UI faculty member and a former interim president at Northern State University in
South Dakota.
“I think that’s a big benefit to her candidacy,” Fisher said.
Nichols was Cowan’s personal favorite and he said her straightforwardness was a strength of hers that may have been lacking in some of the
other candidates.
“I liked how directly she answered the questions that we had,” Cowan said. “She was conversational, she was genial and it was that candor and honesty I especially appreciated.”
Beymer said Nichols was his personal favorite, because it was clear the reason she was in higher education was for
the students.
“She had the Idaho factor, she was down to earth and you can tell she had a passion for students,” Beymer said. “I think the others had that somewhat but if I had to point their passions, I would put it more towards higher education, but her passion was the students.”
Amber Emery can be reached at [email protected]