Although the University’s Faculty Senate passed a vote of no confidence in the Board of Visitors July 11 shortly after former University President Jim Ryan’s resignation, the Student Council initially tried to avoid this route and passed a resolution July 14 calling for student involvement in the search process for the University’s tenth president.
Third-year College Representative Ian Travis said during an Aug. 8 Student Council meeting that he originally felt it was dangerous to condemn the Board and wanted to maintain a good working relationship.
However, just weeks later, Student Council passed a resolution declaring a vote of no confidence in the Board Aug. 8, which was also adopted by the Fourth Year Trustees and Second and Third Year Class Councils.
What changed in these few weeks?
For representatives and executive members, it was what they see as the Board’s decision to repeatedly ignore their requests for student representation. Travis ended up supporting the no confidence resolution during the meeting Aug. 8 after he felt that the Board had not worked with Student Council as initially requested.
“Bottom line, they ignored us,” Travis said at the meeting. “We asked for some pretty clear and reasonable demands … Millions of people saw our statements on this and [the Board] still decided to completely reject us outright.”
Clay Dickerson, Council president and fourth-year College student, said the Council sent their July 14 resolution to the Board the day after it was passed. In this way, the Board was made aware of the Council’s desire to work with them through the presidential search process and include undergraduate University students as part of the search committee.
During the meeting Aug. 8, Dickerson said the Board responded saying they could not “commit” to any of the requests made by Student Council.
University Spokesperson Brian Coy wrote in a statement to The Cavalier Daily that the current search committee includes four student representatives. Coy said that these include Gregory Perryman, student representative of the Board and fourth-year College student, Quana Dennis, class of 2023 and 2024 alumnus and doctoral student, current graduate student Dr. Babur Lateef and Gretchen Walsh, former student-athlete and class of 2025 alumna.
Perryman is the only undergraduate of these four. Lateef is an adult learner and former Board member who assisted on the search committee for former University president Jim Ryan. Walsh, like others whom the University has labeled as alumni, has already graduated from the University and is not a current student.
Coy also said that Kenyon Bonner, University vice president and chief student affairs officer, would be able to represent student perspectives. He noted that Student Council recommended Dennis to serve on the search committee.
Dickerson said that the only option the Board provided as an attempt to meet Student Council’s demands was to swap Perryman, Dennis or Bonner off the search committee for anyone else of the Council’s choosing.
Dickerson said during the meeting that he found this swap option provided by the Board to be offensive and said during a later interview that it was “honestly disrespectful.” He said Student Council’s goal was to add more student representation to the committee rather than to change the members already there.
“In this attempt at giving us an opportunity, they didn’t even include two of the five [student representatives],” Dickerson said. “We would have more likely considered to swap with [Walsh or Lateef] considering we are less familiar with how they got on the search committee.”
Dickerson said Walsh and Lateef are only able to represent a small minority of students, with Walsh being an Olympic athlete and alumna and Lateef being a non-traditional, adult student.
Additionally, Dickerson heavily noted that the Board has provided the Council with limited methods of communication. Most communication has been done through Perryman, who was the messenger of this swap option. Dickerson also noted that the Council has not had any direct meeting with the Board as requested.
Coy wrote that the current committee includes more students than the previous presidential search committee which selected Ryan. He wrote that even though Perryman is the sole undergraduate of these students, the committee remains diverse with various perspectives.
“The search committee represents a balanced group of University stakeholders with broad [perspectives] on [the University],” Coy wrote. “There are several participants who have valuable insight on the student experience and there are going to be many avenues for all members of our community to further contribute.”
However, Dickerson said that he has received negative feedback regarding Perryman being the only undergraduate student part of the search committee, as people feel there is a conflict of interest with him also being the student representative of the Board.
He said this feedback has been received via word-of-mouth and other informal communication, as well as through a feedback form sent to University students in the monthly Student Council newsletter.
When the Council passed the resolution in July asking for transparency from the Board and student representation throughout the presidential search process, they made no condemnations.
Ultimately, Dickerson said during the Aug. 8 meeting that the decision to draft a resolution of no confidence was not easy but it was necessary in order to fulfill Student Council’s role, which he views as being responsible for bettering the lives of every student at the University. During a later interview, Dickerson noted that class councils having also adopted this resolution shows that there is a broader array of students upset with the Board than just Student Council.
Dickerson hoped that having class councils in support would hopefully catalyze any response from the Board.However, Dickerson said during the later interview that the Board has so far said nothing since the Council’s vote of no confidence but that he still views the vote as necessary student feedback to the Board.
“The Board refers to students as customers, and if they want this University to run well, they should listen to the individuals that keep it running,” Dickerson said. “I view this no confidence [vote] as quality assurance.”
Student Council and the Faculty Senate both serve as advisory bodies — their votes of no confidence do not bind the Board to any specific action, although Dickerson feels the trust of community members should be essential to the Board.
Cecilia Mould contributed reporting.
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