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wiu712
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Joined: Tue Apr 22, 2014 2:05 pm

I was talking with a Macomb businessman yesterday. He said that he was shocked and stunned by the BOT's decision. He said that Western needs stability. He thinks that adding up to 18 more months of uncertainty is not wise.
Leatherneck10
Posts: 89
Joined: Sun Feb 28, 2016 8:32 am

It is wholly inappropriate for the student trustee to vote on personnel matters. It creates numerous conflict of interest opportunities. Those go both ways, with the student able to exert undue influence over employees and the university able to do the same to the trustee in his role as a student. University employees are banned by law from serving as trustees for this exact reason.
leatherneckcountry
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Joined: Mon May 09, 2016 4:55 pm

We have seen what has happened when WIU hasn’t searched. We got an AD who isn’t competent of being a HS AD we got a FB coach who just had the worst season in WIU history we got a basketball coach who’s lucky to get 10 wins a year. Some times you have to spend money to make.
wiu712
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Joined: Tue Apr 22, 2014 2:05 pm

Audio recording of Friday's Board of Trustees Meeting:
Leatherneck10
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wiu712 wrote: Sat Dec 14, 2019 1:18 pm Audio recording of Friday's Board of Trustees Meeting:
The recording with the presidential vote is magically missing.
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Neckfansince71
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Joined: Sat Apr 19, 2014 7:06 pm

I was looking at the QC Times and it appears that racist signs have been turning up around town out of no where. A student at Naperville Central High School before Thanksgiving was caught putting up racist signs too. Once again, its not whether it happens, its how do you respond when it happens. I think Martin handled that well! ;) jc
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ST_Lawson
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While I would have been ok with Dr. Abraham being named president, I understand that going forward without a national search would have looked pretty bad to a lot of people. There were more than a few comments pretty upset when articles were coming out saying he was going to be named permanent president. I don't think they had anything against him personally, but it was more of the appearance of "kick out the black guy and just hire the white guy without even going through a proper search". Our biggest need right now is to increase enrollment, and you can't do that by alienating a large portion of our student population, which is something it could have done. I will admit, I was pretty surprised when they didn't vote to make him permanent president (since all indications seemed to be pointing that direction), and I hope that it's because they wanted to do a proper national search, and not because they had another candidate in mind for the position.
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Tere North
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ST_Lawson wrote: Sat Dec 14, 2019 9:48 pm While I would have been ok with Dr. Abraham being named president, I understand that going forward without a national search would have looked pretty bad to a lot of people. There were more than a few comments pretty upset when articles were coming out saying he was going to be named permanent president. I don't think they had anything against him personally, but it was more of the appearance of "kick out the black guy and just hire the white guy without even going through a proper search". Our biggest need right now is to increase enrollment, and you can't do that by alienating a large portion of our student population, which is something it could have done. I will admit, I was pretty surprised when they didn't vote to make him permanent president (since all indications seemed to be pointing that direction), and I hope that it's because they wanted to do a proper national search, and not because they had another candidate in mind for the position.
Ask yourself, had Dr. Martin Abraham been any demographic other than White male, would the "fairness" of having a national search come up?
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ST_Lawson
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Tere North wrote: Sun Dec 15, 2019 8:27 am Ask yourself, had Dr. Martin Abraham been any demographic other than White male, would the "fairness" of having a national search come up?
It probably wouldn't have, but he is white and looked like he was going to be named president without even considering any other possible candidates. With the issues our community has regarding race, especially recently, I think you have to consider how it would look to our minority students (many of whom are already feeling pretty alienated).

Just to be clear, I do think Dr. Abraham has done an excellent job in his position(s) so far at learning about the university and community and doing what he can to address things. He seems to be qualified, and I would not have a problem with him being named the new president, but just naming him directly to the position without a search would have set a bad precedent and quite likely could have hurt minority enrollment even more.
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wiu51
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Joined: Fri May 02, 2014 9:31 am

leatherneckcountry wrote: Sat Dec 14, 2019 1:12 pm We have seen what has happened when WIU hasn’t searched. We got an AD who isn’t competent of being a HS AD we got a FB coach who just had the worst season in WIU history we got a basketball coach who’s lucky to get 10 wins a year. Some times you have to spend money to make.
A national search was done for the AD.
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