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A potential candidate for OU’s presidency leaves the Robert M. Bird Library in Oklahoma City, where members of the OU Board of Regents were interviewing candidates March 10.
OU Board of Regents conducts interviews of presidential candidates behind closed doors in Robert M. Bird Library
O
U’s Board of Regents is wrapping up the presidential search process the same way it began: in covert proceedings. The regents met March 9 and 10 at the Robert M. Bird Library on OU’s Health Sciences Center campus, where they spent more than 12 hours in executive session deliberating and interviewing potential candidates to succeed OU President David Boren. A reporter from The Daily who was attempting to cover the meeting was prevented from fully doing so by OU police officers, who restricted access to a hallway from which it appeared potential candidates were entering and leaving the building. The officer informed the reporter that “the university does not want you back here” before
ANNA BAUMAN • @ANNABAUMAN2 contacting his supervisor to assess the situation. The two officers determined t hat t h e ha l l way s h ou l d b e off-limits because it is normally locked and had only been unlocked by staff members for purposes specific to the regents’ meeting. The hallway provided a hidden entry point for candidates by c o n n e c t i n g t h e re g e nt s’ meeting room with a back entrance, outside of which there was a black SUV parked at several times throughout the day. Before being led out of the hallway, the reporter witnessed an unidentified female who appeared to be a potential candidate leaving the premises. Regents chair Clayton Bennett said he knew nothing about the secrecy surrounding candidate arrivals and departures from the
meeting, but he confirmed that six interviews took place in person between March 9 and 10.
“We have a lot of work to do, a lot of deliberation, a lot of assessment, so we don’t have a time frame. We’ve chosen to take the time we need to make the right decision.” CLAYTON BENNETT, REGENTS CHAIR
“I know nothing about that,” Bennett said. “All I know was I was here to interview the candidates, and they arrived on time. Not involved in getting them here — I don’t know.”
The search for OU’s next president has been shrouded in secrec y since members of the presidential search committee signed a confidentiality agreement not to reveal any information about candidates. This secrecy has sparked backlash from OU faculty members, including OU’s Faculty Senate executive committee, which recently sent an open letter to the regents pushing for transparency and public access to finalists. Bennett said the board interviewed seven candidates in total, six in person and one via Skype, and will now take time to make a decision regarding OU’s next president. “We’ve had two extraordinary days,” Bennett said. “Incredible candidates. We were honored by the engagement, and we’re continuing our deliberations, so
we’re going to work.” Bennett said that he does not have a time frame for when the decision will be made, but that the board will take as much time as it needs to make the right decision. O n March 10, the regents scheduled a special meeting for March 13 to “discuss” candidates, but they canceled it hours later. “We have a lot of work to do, a lot of deliberation, a lot of assessment, so we don’t have a time frame,” Bennett said. “We’ve chosen to take the time we need to make the right decision.” Anna Bauman
anna.m.bauman-1@ou.edu
Teachers voice frustration, call for raises Oklahoma educators’ pay ranks low in nation ANNA BAUMAN @annabauman2
A coalition of Oklahoma educators is calling for immediate legislative action to address the state’s education crisis. Public schools across the state will shut down April 2 if the legislature does not act to provide significant teacher pay raises and increased funding for education, the Oklahoma Education Association announced at a Ma rc h 8 p re s s c o n f e re n c e. The Oklahoma Education
Association is the the state’s largest organization of education professionals. The Oklahoma Education Association’s Together We’re St ro ng e r p ro p o s a l ca l l s f o r $10,000 teacher raises, $5,000 support staff raises and $200 million to restore public school funding over the next three years, among other demands, according to a press release. “Teachers and support professionals of Oklahoma are angry and frustrated with the legislature for not doing its job. We have tried several different paths to improve education funding, but none have worked,” said Alicia Priest, Oklahoma
Education Association president, in a press release. “If the legislature cannot properly fund education and core state services by the legal deadline of April 1, we are prepared to close schools and stay at the Capitol until it gets done.” The group’s proposal also includes state employee pay raises totaling $213 million over the next three years and $255.9 million in health care funding over the next two years. Many teachers who spoke during the press conference voiced their frustrations about teacher shortages, lack of funding and pay that ranks among the lowest in the nation.
School districts will prepare to close schools by organizing ways for students to receive food and tutors during a potential closure, the release said. “School closures are not our goal,” Priest said in the release. “Properly funding education and our state’s core services is the goal.” Nearly 80 percent of respondents to an Oklahoma Education Association survey said they believe it is time for schools to shut down in order for educators to rally for their rights at the state Capitol, according to an earlier press release from the association. These efforts come after
years of repeated failure by the Oklahoma legislature to advance teacher pay raises. The latest was the failure of the Step Up Oklahoma plan, which would have used tax hikes to fund a $5,000 teacher pay raise. The teacher pay crisis has become topic of discussion in other parts of the country as well. Legislators in West Virginia agreed March 6 to fund a 5 percent pay raise for state employees after teachers went on strike Feb. 22, shutting down schools for nine days. Anna Bauman
anna.m.bauman-1@ou.edu