Regents name advisers

In the race to find a new UW president, the Board of Regents met in a special meeting yesterday to approve the members of a presidential-search advisory committee.

The committee was formed with the goal of representing the various constituencies of the University and state. However, David Nixon, president of the Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS), expressed concern over the lone graduate student on the committee.

Regent Gerald Grinstein went against Nixon's recommendation for a graduate-student representative and chose Tyrone Porter, a doctorate candidate in the bioengineering department, to serve on the 15-member committee.

"The graduate and professional students have been shut out of the process of selecting the next president," Nixon said in a written statement during the meeting. "There are over 11,000 students here who now have no voice in this process."

Grinstein asked the board's representatives from the faculty senate, Alumni Association, ASUW and GPSS to submit three names each for consideration as their committee representatives. Nixon said he did not submit a list. Instead, he said he wanted to choose the GPSS representative after he discussed the candidates with the regents.

"Clearly, there were other things that were more important to the regents," Nixon said in the statement.

In a way, Nixon was right. According to Regent Sally Jewell, the regents' primary objective is to find the best president possible for the UW with this committee. Jewell, who is on the committee, has had previous experience on search committees, and pointed out that it is impossible for every group to feel totally represented.

"It has to be representative of the broad community that we aspire to serve," Grinstein said.

Jewell said she thought the candidates will serve the campus very well, but Nixon disagreed.

"(Porter) could have a totally wack view of graduate students for all you know," Nixon said to the regents during the meeting.

In January, the National Society of Black Engineers named Porter the 2001 graduate student of the year. The society is a student-managed organization with the goal of increasing the number of culturally responsible black engineers that excel academically.

"Just because he is a graduate student does not mean that he can speak for graduate and professional students," Nixon said in an e-mail sent to GPSS senators yesterday after the meeting. "I will have a hard time seeing this next president as truly our president when we had nothing to do with his selection."

By April 1, the committee is to submit to the board the names of three to five candidates for the presidency.

The regents want the new president to take office before the 2003-04 academic year.