Sections

After two months of negotiations with the Board of Trustees, Student Union President Andy Hogan ‘11 will sit as a non-voting member of the Presidential Search Committee, Hogan announced at his State of the Student Union Thursday.

State of the Union: Student Union President Andy Hogan ’11 outlined changes the university will undergo in the next year at his State of the Student Union address Thursday evening.
PHOTO BY Natasha Rubin/The Hoot

“I, in representing the students, will be substantively involved in [the presidential search] process,” Hogan said. “I know that I will do my very best in representing student interest in this process and am happy the Board of Trustees and other decision-makers of this university see the value of student input.”

While Chair of the Board of Trustees Malcolm Sherman told The Hoot in its Oct. 23 issue that “there is very little possibility there will be students on the committee,” Hogan said Sherman changed his mind after Hogan met with both him and Meyer Koplow ’72, the chair of the Search Committee.

Neither Sherman nor Koplow were available to comment by press time, however Trustee Emeritus Rena Olshansky ’52, who was present at the State of the Union, told The Hoot she thought Hogan’s appointment was “first rate…I felt in my heart it was critical to have a student on the committee.”

“To have a committee without a student would have left out an important voice,” Olshansky said. “Now, we will have that voice through Andy, so we can have important and meaningful discourse.”

In addition to having Hogan serve as a student representative on the search committee, students will be able to voice their opinions about the presidential search process via the student advisory committee, which will hold a Town Hall discussion about the search on Nov. 30 at 5:30 p.m. in Sherman Function Hall.

The Student Union will also be sending out a web-survey to solicit student input about the presidential search.

Hogan said in his address that the question students must answer is, “What do you want Brandeis to look like in 20 years? This institution will look very different, and how do you want it to change?”

“Change is the big word with which we end 2009,” Hogan said, adding later that “Change is not something to fear. Yes, we have seen and will continue to see a lot of it as time progresses, but I see this change not as a burden, but as an opportunity.”