Community provides input in SRU head search
SLIPPERY ROCK — Slippery Rock University officials kicked off the school's search for a new president in earnest this week, with a pair of meetings between the firm tasked with conducting the search, the committee in charge of directing the process and the wider university community.
Faculty, staff members and students were the focus of a town hall-style meeting Thursday afternoon at the school's Spotts World Culture Building, where consultant JoAnn Gora of AGB Search, the firm conducting the process, put seven questions to about two dozen people who assembled to offer their opinions on the matter.
Those questions ranged from how people viewed SRU's culture and guiding principals, to what they believe the institution's priorities should be in coming years, and what challenges the school will face as a new president takes over for current SRU President Cheryl Norton, who is retiring effective July 31 this year.
Students, faculty and staff members were mostly united on the topic of SRU's culture.
Several music and arts majors from the school joined the forum on Thursday, saying that despite the school's success in recent years, they want more attention paid to the liberal arts.
Nicole Nero, a sophomore music education major and co-drum major of SRU's Marching Pride band, pointed to the group's exponential growth as evidence that the next president needs to pay more attention to the arts.
Nero said the band's membership grew by 21 percent this year alone, and said a “rigorous and absolutely phenomenal” music education curriculum at SRU needed more support from the school's administration.
Special events coordinator Deb Baker, a veteran staff member at the university, pointed to the shuttered Miller Auditorium, which has been the subject of on-again-off-again renovation plans for six years, as an example of what the students were talking about.
Currently performing arts students use gymnasiums and Swope Music Hall for rehearsals, but the lack of things like dance studios and larger rehearsal spaces for instrumentalists and performance artists has left many students questioning whether the university believes they are a priority.
“For academic and community reasons, I think that project needs to move forward,” Baker said.
SRU trustee Richard Wukich agreed, saying it was “aggravating” to see schools across the country pour resources into STEM and STEAM initiatives while the liberal arts, by comparison, are neglected.Wukich said he believes the university faces an issue of infrastructure as more classes move online, but “experiential” classes like dance, theater and music won't be able to follow the online trend.“The problem we're going to have is that … we have this big infrastructure we have to support. But the trend's going the opposite direction,” Wukich said.Other students said that, in general, they want a president at SRU who is going to be more visibly involved with everyday student life than Norton's office is currently.Students said they want to see the president's office get involved with student clubs and activities, and have a more visible presence at official university events.“I really want to see the president be more engaged with students,” said Malika Fields, a junior communications and Spanish major.Lauren Moran, the university's director of student leadership and enrollment, said she also wants to see the incoming president take a more active role in promoting diversity and highlighting SRU's welcoming culture.Moran said she sees the search for a new president as an opportunity to foster “diverse communities” as the university's demographics grown and change.“We have some social justice issues for sure,” she said. “And as a majority white institution, some students don't feel as safe or welcomed as others.”
