A homegrown leader is needed

For better or worse, Yueh-Ting Lee is no longer the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. This now leaves us with the challenging task of finding a new dean for the largest college at the University of Toledo. Since I have been at UT, all the searches for new administrators have been national searches. Not once have we promoted from within. The reason for these national searches is the desire to bring in new people and new ideas to UT. For this dean search, though, I believe it is time to take a different approach and hire one of our own.

The CAS does not need dynamic leadership; it needs trust. After the antics of the last few months, trust is really only goingto come from a current UT faculty member serving as the dean. With all the imagined and real threats to the CAS, the faculty and students need a leader whom they know the credentials of. These credentials should not be ones which they can read off a resume, but credentials which they themselves have witnessed. Faculty and students need a dean who they believe will not be a "yes man," but rather someone who will speak up for the best interests of all parties involved. Trust would allow the faculty of the CAS to move past survival concerns and start focusing on education again. I want to see my professors stressed over my bad grades, not whether their department will remain credible and intact.

A dean from the faculty may even help President Lloyd Jacobs get across controversial ideas. The response may be less confrontational if it comes from someone who the faculty believes is on their side.

Many feel Jacobs is surrounded by people who will not tell him "no," and though you don't want a dean who is looking for a fight, you do want one who knows the college, knows the professors and knows the students. These traits will help to create a two-way conduit of opinions and ideas, not the often one-way path many feel the president's office presents. This is not simply the administration's university, it is all of ours, and the faculty and students need to see a sign of faith from the president's office that the administration still knows this. A professor serving as dean would show this. The best dean for the College of Arts and Science will not come from another national search, but from University Hall.

Ken Evans Student Senator for the College of Arts and Sciences Senior Majoring in Political Science