EDITORIAL: Students need to have more say on the administrative level
As of Summer 2020, it has become practice for UHCL to utilize student-organized town hall meetings to hear student opinions on particularly hot topics, but the weight of the student voice seems to be conditional based on the subject matter. Student voices should not only be heard when somebody asks for them, they should already be in the room for major decision-making processes.
Search committees for administrative positions
UHCL students need to play a more significant role in deciding who serves in administrative positions on campus. These positions include leadership roles in major divisions and offices, like academic affairs and provost, student affairs and administration and finance.
As of Fall 2020, students play a small part in understanding who may fill these positions when a vacancy occurs. However, these roles consist entirely of decision-making that directly impacts all students.
When a vacancy occurs in a director-level position or higher, the university is required to form a search committee in order to fill the role according to the policies set by the University of Houston System Administrative Memorandums and also by UHCL guidelines. This means the university forms an on-campus group to screen candidates, interview them and eventually bring a narrowed-down pool to campus for tours, interviews and presentations.
Technically, students are already a part of this process, although their participation is not required. Search committees on campus, particularly for administrative-level positions, typically involve a few students. These students, who are not selected through any formalized process, are a part of the search from start to finish.
A few students serving in a role to help screen a new candidate who will be making decisions that impact the student body at large is a mediocre model at best.
It should be a priority of the campus to ensure that students are informed about these positions, their vacancies and the candidates that may potentially fill them.
Civic engagement now, not later
It should, similarly, be a priority of students to want to be involved in this process. Participants in search committees have said that student members are sometimes the least active. When this occurs, the search will continue unhinged.
Considering that higher-level positions heavily impact the current student body and all those to come, students should hold themselves accountable to be civically engaged on campus now, and not just in the world beyond college. This accountability should not only include utilizing their voice but also educating themselves on what occurs on campus that affects the student population.
While it is the responsibility of each individual student to educate and engage themselves, the university similarly has a responsibility to ensure that relevant information is easily accessible to the campus community.
While there is no procedure in place, position vacancies could be announced to the student body by campus-wide email, engagement platforms, student government or even the limited remaining campus bulletin spaces.
A system for students who are interested in serving on search committees should also be put in place. Student government leaders could potentially organize this process by utilizing an easily accessible online submission form for interested students.
Increase student inclusion in hiring committees
Once senior leadership candidates are screened and initial interviews passed, the few chosen to come to campus typically give presentations. While these presentations are often opened to students, they are not typically advertised beyond campus-wide emails.
Students are able to attend these presentations, but they don’t serve any role in them beyond a Q&A session at the end, and even that time is shared with any other campus faculty and staff member also in attendance.
The standard should be set to make these presentations accessible to all students. This could be made possible by live-streaming and distributing a survey for all candidate presentations, and not just a select few.
In addition to students attending candidate presentations, there are occasionally opportunities for students to give candidates a tour, have lunch with them or interact with the candidate as some part of their campus visit. Although, this type of interaction mainly occurs for student engagement focused positions.
Candidate interactions with students are not required for any position and there is no formalized process for how students are chosen to serve in these roles.
The only other impact students may have regarding a potential new administrator, is an evaluation given after meeting with a candidate, which is not required but often utilized. However, this will only occur after a student attends an open presentation or is chosen to interact with a candidate in some way during the campus visit.
Students, do not underestimate the weight of your voice
Because student involvement in a search is not required and neither are interactions with students during campus visits, a potential administrator could be selected without UHCL students ever being a part of that process.
While it is important that perspectives come from around campus in all departments, the student voice and opinion should play a more relevant part than it currently does, considering all these roles directly impact students.
The reality is that students make up the smallest portion of a search committee and are heavily outnumbered by faculty and staff.
Students need to have a more significant role in this process, whether that is by allowing students to vote for the narrowed pool of candidates based on their presentations, and utilizing this information in the final decision-making process, or by increasing the participation of students in a search committee.
Administrators play a significant role in deciding what happens on campus, but students play a minor role in deciding who serves in the positions that directly affect them. In order to ensure the university continues to best serve students, steps need to be taken to enact policies that best involve students in the processes that directly affect them and their successes at UHCL.