OCU announced Dr. Kenneth Evans will take over as the new university president following July 1, and the editors at Student Publications have compiled a list of issues they hope the new president will address.
One of the biggest areas OCU can improve is communication and transparency between the administration and the campus community. Within the academic year, OCU has failed to communicate quickly and efficiently during times of emergency, such as the Methodist Hall flood, and they have left students and staff out of the presidential search process, despite having representation from both of these groups in the past.
As mentioned in a past editorial, a lack of communication and transparency from the university causes problems and frustration within the campus community. OCU needs to tell students, staff and faculty about what they can and cannot be transparent about. That way, the university sets expectations for the campus community so they don’t have to make guesses about the university’s motives.
Another area of improvement that our new university president could work on is sustainability and renewable energy on campus. At the presidential forums, students representing environmentalist clubs on campus made a point to ask each candidate about their stance on sustainability. Evans said he is open to looking into sustainability efforts during those forums, so hopefully this will be something he looks into. Whether he supports it fully or not, students can and should continue pushing this issue into active conversation.
Finally, diversity, equity and inclusion has been on the forefront of discussion on campus for the past couple of years. Several community members said on the Student Publications survey that they worry about Evans’s capability to lead a diverse campus, especially with him replacing a woman as president. Our new president needs to make sure he uses the resources at his disposal, such as Russ Tallchief, president of Diversity and Inclusion, and Talia Carroll, vice president of Diversity and Inclusion, various student multicultural groups on campus, different faculty departments and the Staff Council, to inform his decisions on campus. By gathering input from a diverse group of students, faculty and staff, Evans can work to truly make his presidency representative of the campus populace.
The new administration for OCU puts the university in the position for great and much needed improvements. We urge the incoming president and all administrative staff to listen to the needs of all community members to create an excellent campus environment, and the campus community needs to keep pushing for the changes they want to see at OCU.
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