The Miami Student Oldest university newspaper in the United States, established 1826
VOLUME 138 NO. 49
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
MIAMI UNIVERSITY OXFORD, OHIO
In 1974, The Miami Student reported that a new constitution, which allowed for the restructuring of student government, would be voted on. The proposed constitution would combine Student Senate and other organizations into Association Student Government.
Editor Amanda Seitz specialreports@miamistudent.net
SPECIAL REPORTS
Board evaluates president in private By Amanda Seitz Special Reports Editor
The outcome of the board of trustees’ annual evaluation of President David Hodge’s performance remains a mystery to the public and press. The leader of the university’s review happens in the privacy of an executive session meeting. The Miami Student submitted a public records request for information related to President Hodge’s performance reviews on Jan. 14, 2011. Miami University General Counsel Robin Parker denied that request. “As I advised the reporter, the Board of Trustees does not prepare written annual evaluations of the president,” Parker wrote in response on Jan. 31, 2011. Hodge’s 5-year contract is up for renewal June 30. Although the board of trustees said they hope to offer renewal to Hodge, they won’t say how they rate his performance behind closed doors.
The contract The president’s written employment contract says Hodge must undergo an annual performance evaluation. “On or before July 1 of each calendar year, Dr. Hodge shall initiate the evaluation process for the period that began on Sept. 1 of the previous calendar year by submitting to the Board a self appraisal,” the contract reads. The board then meets with Hodge to discuss his performance. While the evaluation itself is not written, Hodge submits a written list of goals for himself and the university. These goals are copyrighted and Associate Vice President Dionn Tron said The Miami Student is not allowed to reprint the strategies. The goals are topics Hodge has stressed to the university over the last few years. They
include topics such as Greek life improvements, retention rates and diversity infusion at the university. “I would hope no one on campus would read those and go, ‘that’s a surprise,’” Hodge said in an interview. “I’ve tried to be transparent about everything I can.”
The review President Hodge’s review is an informal process said trustee chairman Donald Crain. Crain has not yet evaluated the president as a chairman but was able to detail how the annual evaluation works. Crain said the chairman evaluates the president in an executive session meeting. Data from the Association of Governing Board, a group that supports university administrators, boards and presidents, shows 55 percent of public institutions have the full board give the evaluation while only 10 percent have just the board chair give the evaluation. The remaining 35 percent use other methods to administer evaluations, such as compensation or assessment committees. “We will look at the president’s goals and expectations and give the board chair their comments and their views on the various issues and the chairman reviews the president,” Crain said. Crain hasn’t thought about changing the evaluation process because he believes it’s effective. “That’s the way Miami has always operated,” Crain said. “We’ve gotten excellent results. I do know that Dr. Hodge has received excellent evaluations from the board.” Evidence would suggest Hodge’s evaluations have been good. In 2009, The Miami Student reported that Hodge had turned down $68,000 in performance-based bonuses offered by the trustees. Hodge said he has refused all bonuses the
CONTRIBUTED BY MIAMI UNIVERSITY PHOTOGRAPHY
President David Hodge is reviewed annually by the Board of Trustees in executive session. board has offered him. But Hodge doesn’t think the review process is about bonuses, he believes it’s a time to focus the direction of the university. “Those goals are rarely around me, they’re around what the university accomplishes,” Hodge said. “This isn’t about my level of activity, it’s about moving forward for the university. I’m going to take personal responsibility to move the university forward.” Although Hodge said he has no problem with alerting the public about the review process, he sees value in having a private evaluation process. “In the annual goals I like to talk about our vulnerabilities, there’s no reason to draw attention to them,” Hodge said.
“Most people in a public session will be more guarded.”
No oversight The Ohio Board of Regents places faith in the trustees to evaluate the president and does not conduct its own evaluation, according to Press Secretary Rob Evans. “It is one of the important duties of a board of trustees,” Evans said. “Trustees at public universities are in a sense the same kind of stewards of public trusts as an elected official.” Boards of regents in 10 other states
wSee REVIEW, page 9
New ASG leaders set goals Pi Beta Phi to return June 1 By Matt Levy Senior Staff Writer
Miami University students have chosen their new student body president and vice president. Nick Huber and Matt Frazier won the student government election last week with 56.73 percent of the vote, beating Bryan Klipsch and Jon Gipson, who received 40.2 percent of the votes, according to numbers supplied by current student body Vice President Tim Hogan. “This university has given me so many opportunities to develop myself,” Huber said regarding the election results. “This has really hit home for me in terms of humility and I’m just so fortunate for being able to do this.” Elected on the self-titled Legacy Party ticket, one of Huber’s biggest priorities is continuing current student body president Heath Ingram’s initiative of increasing school pride among first and second-year students. “We all enjoy the lives we have as Miami students because of the contributions that have come before us, and once other students understand that, it will help them become stewards of the Miami experience in the future,” Huber said. Huber also discussed plans to make available to incoming first-year students the array of extra-curricular activities as they begin their time at Miami, incorporating members from athletics and various first-year programs into the weekly Associated Student Government (ASG) meetings and increasing the transparency of ASG’s meetings through technology and student engagement. “Increasing the history and (improving awareness) of current events on campus with first and second-year programming is a huge thing for us,” Huber said. “Engaging students between orientation and the
first day of classes is also something we consider urgent.” According to Huber, president Heath Ingram will spend the next few weeks teaching him how to be a successful president. “My last responsibility is to give the incoming president as much support as I possibly can,” Ingram said. “When my term ends on graduation day, (I want to be) confident that I have done all I can to help Nick have the most successful year he can next fall.” Ingram seemed pleased with the election results and both he and Huber noted how clean the election was from all sides. “I really am thrilled he ran a great campaign, a clean campaign and I think he’s going to continue to build off some of the work I did and I couldn’t ask for any more than that,” Ingram said. Taking the position of Vice President of Campus Activities is Brianna Picciuto, who won the position against Christian Trapp. Picciuto garnered 40.2 percent of the vote, beating Trapp’s 33.5 percent. “I’m really excited to learn about all the new events we have coming up first semester,” Picciuto said. “I’ve already jumped into everything this week, kind of transitioning already. I’m looking forward to starting out right away even though I don’t officially become VP of Campus Activities until next year.” According to Picciuto, current Vice President of Campus Activities Michael Emling has already started the process of acclimating her to her new role. The only other cabinet position students voted for last week was the Vice President of Student Organizations, which taken by current ASG treasurer Meghan Wadsworth who ran unopposed. According to Picciuto, ASG will begin the process of voting in the remaining cabinet positions Tuesday night, continuing over the next two to three weeks.
Sorority back on campus after 13-month hiatus By Amanda Seitz Special Reports Editor
While Miami University struggles to overcome the image of sorority debauchery that plagued the campus last year, one of the sororities that left a stain on the Greek system will return. Pi Beta Phi (Pi Phi) will come back June 1. Last year, Pi Phi damaged the Lake Lyndsay Lodge during their spring formal. A letter sent to the university from lodge owner Lyndsay Rapier-Phipps painted a scene where students vomited throughout the night, women and their dates engaged in intercourse throughout the building, vases and building ornaments were smashed, human feces was found outside the building and students were so intoxicated, they were cut off from the purchasing more alcohol by the bartender. The sorority’s national chapter proposed a fall return to the university sometime last week, Jenny Levering, director of Greek affairs said. Eily Cummings, a representative for Pi Beta Phi, said the chapter will use special methods to ensure future wrongdoings don’t happen. “We’ve created several layers of added support to assist the chapter as it transitions, this includes local alumnae advisor, fulltime resident consultants who will live on
campus and a chapter assistance officer,” a representative said. Levering said returning members who choose to be part of the Ohio Zeta chapter will need to go through the new member program again. “If women want to stay on board they’re going to have to go through the new member process,” Levering said. “It will be restarting the chapter from the beginning.” Consultants from the national chapter will interview past Pi Phi members during April to discuss future membership. “We do not know yet (how many members will return) because all of the undergraduate alumnae have been notified but we have not heard back from them,” a representative said. Following their reinstatement, Levering said the chapter will be on social probation for a year, meaning they will not be allowed to host any socials with alcohol. The chapter will also be able to participate in two recruitments next year. “They’ll be running their own recruitment process in the fall and they’ll be a part of the spring recruitment,” Levering said. Pi Phi said they would offer continuous open bidding in the fall. Levering said the sorority would also be admitted back into their old suite but the sorority is still discussing the matter with the Office of Residence Life.