Provost candidates to
speak at forums
By Laura Pelner
Campus
Editor
The first of the four candidates for provost will
be on campus today and will participate in events that have never before
been part of the selection process of a Purdue University official.
"I think it's a desire on the part of President
(Martin) Jischke because this is such an important position that affects
the entire University community," said Richard Borch, the head of the
provost selection committee and the head of the medicinal chemistry
and molecular pharmacology department at Purdue.
"(Jischke) wants to give broad representatives
from the community a chance to participate. The objective is to give
(the provost candidates) a chance to interact with broad constituencies
on the Purdue campus and for them to learn more about Purdue," said
Borch. "It's a good chance for us to get a chance to meet these people
and hear their views on where (Purdue) should be going."
The provost, who will replace Robert Ringel, the
executive vice president for academic affairs, will be the chief academic
administrator for Purdue.
The biggest addition to the selection process is
the open forum that each candidate will speak at. "The way the open
forum is structured the candidates will be presenting their own remarks
for probably 15 to 20 minutes. They will give brief presentations and
that will leave a lot of time for members of the university community
to ask questions," said Borch.
The Vice President of University Relations, Joe
Bennett, said, "I think the idea is really to have a situation where
the candidates will get a good feel for the campus and have some good
productive exposure to the kind of people we have at Purdue. We have
an opportunity for a lot of different people to meet the candidates
and get a feel for what they can bring to the position."
Each of the provost candidate's remarks in the
open forum will be based on the same theme — "The Future of Research
at Public Universities and Purdue University."
Borch said that the similarities in each of the
candidate's schedules are an asset to the new process. "The feeling
was that a highly standardized agenda for each individual would ensure
that each individual would be treated in the same way," said Borch.
Jim Vaca, the president of the student body and
a member of the provost selection committee, said that he thinks it
is good that each candidate has a similar schedule. "When you're dealing
with situations like this you don't want to have too many variables.
When you pick one candidate you want to make sure everyone has gone
through the same process," said Vaca.
The open forum for Steven Leslie, the candidate
who is on campus today, is at 3 p.m. in Stewart Center 206. The forum
for Gary Schuster will be at 3 p.m. on Monday in Stewart Center 202.
The forum for Joan Lorden will be at 3 p.m. on Feb. 1 in Stewart Center
202 and the forum for Sally Frost Mason will be at 3 p.m. on Feb. 7
in the Krannert Auditorium.
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