Class sizes, issues of cultural tolerance and the ongoing search for Binghamton University’s next president were among the most discussed topics at a town hall forum earlier this month in which BU’s top administrators spoke about their roles and responded to questions from students.
About 40 people attended the event in Lecture Hall 14 on Tuesday, April 12, which lasted about an hour.
C. Peter Magrath, the then-interim president of BU who has since been elevated to president, and five other top administrators took questions from students after briefly introducing themselves and discussing their roles and some recent developments relating to their positions.
Student Association President Jared Kirschenbaum was the first to pose a question. He asked the administration to provide an update on the presidential search process.
Magrath said he believed that the search “will be renewed very shortly.” He also reiterated that he would stay on as BU president until the end of 2011.
The Press & Sun-Bulletin reported last Thursday that SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher has demanded that Kathryn Madigan, chair of the presidential search committee and chair of the BU Council, step down from her post on the committee. Zimpher and the SUNY Board of Trustees also recommended that James Orband, another Council member, take over as chair of the search committee, according to the Press & Sun-Bulletin.
Magrath said at the town hall forum that he was “very optimistic that a good outcome will come out of this process.”
Francis Naylor, a junior majoring in Arabic, asked the second question of the evening. He said he was “annoyed” that the Arabic department did not have as large a teaching staff as other language programs, and accused the administration of exercising “program bias.”
Jean-Pierre Mileur, the interim provost and vice president of academic affairs, said budget constraints were a major reason the University could not meet all the department needs it would like to.
“We’re dealing with a declining budget,” Mileur said.
Dominic Davy, a senior and a member of the Black Student Union, asked the administration to comment on the recent revelation that a member of SA Financial Council (FinCo) had made what Davy called “racially infused comments” regarding student groups.
Davy was referring to an unofficial copy of notes compiled from FinCo’s meetings, in which an unknown member of the Council, which oversees funding for student groups, referred to the Black Student Union as a “shitty welfare group.”
Davy said he feels “very uneasy and threatened when [he is] in the same room” as people who think this about his group. He demanded that whoever was responsible for the comments admit responsibility and step down from student government.
“What does the administration plan to do about the concerns I have and that students who agree with me have?” Davy asked.
Brian Rose, vice president for student affairs, said that students should bring their concerns “about the integrity of the funding mechanism for groups” to the SA.
“At the end of the day it’s students’ issue to own. Even if the administration had authority here, which we don’t, I wouldn’t want to use it, because then the answer would be top-down. Students are only going to accept the answer if it comes from themselves,” Rose said.
Two days later, the SA Executive Board and members of FinCo participated in a town hall forum called for by BSU to discuss these issues and negotiate reforms of student government.
Vice President for Administration James Van Voorst responded to questions about the $20 million settlement of a lawsuit filed against Sodexo by New York’s Attorney General, in which the food service provider was accused of withholding refunds from New York State agencies, including BU.
Van Voorst said the University made a formal pitch to get a share of the settlement, but that the attorney general’s office said BU did not have a sufficient case.
He would not rule out that BU would do business with Sodexo in the future, but he said the contract for campus food services would be put out to a bid when Sodexo’s current contract with the University expires in several years.
“The contract is done at the state level, and it will be a competitive bid,” he said.