For the first time, FAU plans to hire a full-time adviser for its often-troubled Student Government. Interviews of the six candidates began last week, however, few SG officials showed up and those who did seemed more suspicious than enthused.
The first round of phone interviews for director of SG were held Wednesday with only one of two scheduled candidates answering the phone. Three more candidates were interviewed Friday and the last two will be interviewed on Monday.
The hiring process for the new administration position consists of three rounds: short-listing the candidate pool by qualifications with a review of the application, phone interviews and, finally, on-campus interviews (that all the student body can participate in) with the top two or three candidates.
“The Director of Student Government position is essential for the future growth of student learning, involvement and… engagement at Florida Atlantic University,” Larry Faerman, committee chair and assistant director of housing says.
The candidate for director of SG who answered the phone Wednesday, Rivka Felsher, was run through a gauntlet of pre-prepared questions by the search committee, along with impromptu questions by House Parliamentarian Jenna Sereni regarding “a balance between oversight of SG and advisory.”
On Friday, however, student representation at the search committee interviews was minimal, with Associate Justice for the Jupiter campus Tommy Zeichman participating via phone.
Zeichman’s questions to the candidates on Friday focused on how the candidates would “work with multiple campuses…that are pretty spread out.”
While a majority of the 10 member search committee is supposed to be comprised of students including: Student Body President Tony Teixeira, Boca Governor Matthew Jarrett, Boca House of Representatives Parliamentarian Jenna Sereni, Chief Justice Jason Blinder, Treasure Coast Governor Paul Lowe and a housing student; very few of these students have actually showed up to search committee phone interviews.
Jarrett sent his Chief of Staff Kendra Gedeon to represent him Wednesday, and Blinder was represented by Zeichman, Friday; but neither of these representatives nor the people they represented were in attendance at any other interviews.
Roy Levow, faculty representative to the NCAA and past faculty senate president said Friday, “The committee has a fair number of students on it, and we don’t know why their not in attendance today.”
For more information regarding the Search for the Directors, watch for the print edition of the University Press on racks Wednesday and continuing web coverage.
