MILLER

Marie Miller, music professor, was named today as the new dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

“It gives me great pleasure to announce that Dr. Marie Miller will be the new dean for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences… During her time at ESU, Dr. Miller has demonstrated robust leadership skills,” said Tes Mehring, provost and vice president for academic affairs and student life, in a Buzz-In announcement this afternoon.

Miller assumed duties as interim dean of LAS in August and has served as chair of the music department for 14 years and interim chair of the English department for two years.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in music from Silver Lake College in her hometown Manitowoc, Wis., a master’s degree in music from Northwestern University and a doctorate from Florida State University.

Miller will begin duties as LAS dean on Dec. 25, according to the announcement.

Kenzie Templeton/The Bulletin

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Michael Shonrock, newly appointed president of Emporia State, answers questions during a press conference immediately following the regents' announcement in Albert Taylor Hall. Shonrock said he was honored and excited to accept the presidency. Jon Coffey/The Bulletin

Albert Taylor Hall was bustling with people Friday as the Kansas Board of Regents announced the new president of Emporia State, Michael Shonrock. The regents convened a session on the stage and took an official vote, selecting Shonrock as the 16th president of ESU.

But they had previously extended him the offer, coming to a consensus in an executive session, said Vanessa Lamoreaux, associate director of communications for KBOR.

“The meeting was – there was no binding action that was taken,” Lamoreaux said. “Instead what the regents did the other night after they concluded the interviews is they reached consensus as a group on who the offer would be extended to. The offer was extended, the candidate tentatively accepted and the formal and binding action took place at the meeting that took place this morning (Dec. 9) on the ESU campus.”

Lamoreaux said the Kansas Open Meetings Act was not violated and cited the 1990 case O’Hair vs. UDS 300 as reference.

Still, Shonrock said he was “just overwhelmed with joy” and also joked that he “loved the way you vote out here in Kansas.”

Shonrock and his wife Karen were on campus following the announcement, having a brief press conference and then meeting students, faculty and community members in the Plumb Hall rotunda.

“Sincerely, we fell in love with Emporia State University, and we fell in love with Emporia,” Shonrock said. “We look forward to the many opportunities ahead.”

He said that this was an exciting time for ESU with the approach of the 150 year celebration, and during his first months as president he wants to continue to assess the university and build relations on campus.

He said that there will be many opportunities to build ESU’s brand and find ways to encourage growth in various parts of the institution to help aid enrollment and the retention of students.

“We want to look at our current plan in terms of our strategies for the future,” Shonrock said. “In terms of enrollment we want to work very closely with the foundation. We don’t get a second chance to have a 150 year anniversary, and so it’s a great opportunity for us to really seriously look at a capital campaign to help benefit the institution.”

Derryl Wynn, search committee chair, said Shonrock’s passion for education and his sense of humor were among the reasons they suggested him for the position.

“We gravitated towards Dr. Shonrock mainly because of what he was able to accomplish at his prior university and because…he demonstrates a genuine interest in (students’) welfare,” Wynn said. “One of the things that we also liked, frankly, was his energy.”

The atmosphere was one of the chief reasons Shonrock said he desired the presidential position, as well as the time he had spent here previously in college.

While fundraising and improving town and gown relations are top priorities for Shonrock, he said that he also hopes to teach at some point during his presidency.

“I really do hope to have the opportunity very early to be a member of the faculty. That’s very important to me,” Shonrock said.

Shonrock said he and his wife intend to “start the new year as Kansans,” and will move into the presidential residence at 1522 Highland St. after Christmas. He will assume official duties as president on Jan. 3, 2012.

Charlie Heptas/The Bulletin
news@esubulletin.com

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President Obama greets the audience with a smile at the high school gymnasium in Osawatomie. Armando Pinion/The Bulletin

Obama's speech had a historic tie to President Theodore Roosevelt's New National Address in 1910. Armando Pinion/The Bulletin

When President Obama delivered his “make-or-break moment for the middle class” speech last Tuesday, he was following in the footsteps of Republican Teddy Roosevelt, who in 1910, came here to make a case for a socially conscious New Nationalism, which defined the progressive era to follow.

Roosevelt spoke before a crowd of 30,000 at John Brown Park, just down the street from present-day Osawatomie High.

“I believe in shaping the ends of government to protect property as well as human welfare,” Roosevelt said. “Normally…the ends are the same, but whenever the alternative must be faced I am for men and not for property.”

Roosevelt’s address, which historians have called the most important speech ever given in Kansas, evoked polarized responses. While some lauded it as the greatest American speech ever given, others called it socialistic, communistic, even anarchistic, according to Robert S. La Forte, writing in the Kansas Historical Quarterly.

William Allen White, the legendary editor of the Emporia Gazette, was a friend of Roosevelt and helped shape the New Nationalism address.

White became a leader of the Progressive movement, forming the Kansas Republican League in 1912.

Roosevelt, who had previously served eight years in the White House, ran for president again in 1912 on the Bull Moose ticket, but didn’t win. Progressive policy, however, did. The result included the minimum wage, the eight-hour work day, and the federal income tax.

The current tax system is one issue Obama addressed in his speech. Armando Pinion/The Bulletin

This panoramic photo was created by stitching together various photos from Obama's speech. Armando Pinion/The Bulletin

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President Barack Obama speaks on economic reform, taxes and education in the high school gymnasium in Osawatomie last Tuesday. He said investing in education should be a priority for the U.S. and that America has the best colleges and universities. Armando Pinion/The Bulletin

OSAWATOMIE — Saving the American middle class, restoring the economy and making higher education a priority were among the themes of President Barack Obama’s historic speech in Osawatomie last Tuesday. The high school gymnasium in the small Kansas town with just over 4,000 residents was packed with audience members.

The president said the process of restoring the economy begins with education.

“We’ve got to up our game…it starts by making education a national mission,” Obama said. “In this economy, a higher education is the surest route to the middle class.”

The president also said it was good to be back in Kansas and that he had roots here.

“I’m sure you’re all familiar with the Obamas of Osawatomie,” he joked.

But he chose the small Kansas town for its historical ties to President Theodore Roosevelt, who in 1910, delivered a speech at John Brown Park, just down the street from present-day Osawatomie High.

Roosevelt’s speech later became known as the “New Nationalism Address,” according to the Kansas Historical Society’s website, and the crowd’s reception varied.

Obama received several standing ovations during his speech, but the crowds’ biggest, most supportive response came when he mentioned the need for education investment.

“We shouldn’t be laying off good teachers right now – we should be hiring them,” he said. “We shouldn’t be expecting less of our schools –- we should be demanding more. We shouldn’t be making it harder to afford college – we should be a country where everyone has a chance to go and doesn’t rack up $100,000 of debt just because they went (to college).”

Obama said the unemployment rate for Americans with a college degree is about half of the national average, and their incomes are twice as high as those who do not hold a high school diploma.

Providing opportunities for students to further their education in areas of science and engineering, Obama said, should be a priority.

“No one has better colleges. Nobody has better universities…investing in things like education that give everybody a chance to succeed…that’s what will transform our economy,” Obama said.

This summer, Emporia State’s teachers college was recognized by the U.S. Department of Education for excellence. According to their website, ESU cultivates educators with “the knowledge, skills, resources and fortitude to lead and succeed in the twenty first century.”

“It’s wrong,” Obama said, “that in the United States of America, a teacher or a nurse or a construction worker (who) maybe earns $50,000 a year, should pay a higher tax rate than somebody raking in $50 million.”

Balancing the national debt, which now stands at more than $15 trillion, according the U.S. Department of Treasury’s website, was a focus of Obama’s speech.

“If we want a strong middle class, then our tax code must reflect our values,” Obama said. “We have to make choices. Today that choice is very clear. To reduce our deficit, I’ve already signed nearly $1 trillion of spending cuts into law and I’ve proposed trillions more.”

Last spring, Obama officially announced his candidacy for reelection in 2012. Kansas last sided with a Democratic candidate in 1964, when Lyndon Baines Johnson was elected president.

Kenzie Templeton/The Bulletin
editor@esubulletin.com

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Yawei Fan and Zheng Lin died in a fire that broke out in their apartment on Oct. 20. Memorial services were held on Oct. 27 in Albert Taylor Hall. Their parents were in attendance. Courtesy Photo

When they first met at Emporia State during the 2009 fall semester, Zheng Lin was 20, and Yawei Fan was 21. They came to ESU from Liaoning Normal University in northeastern China, and they quickly fell in love.

But two years later, they both died when a fire broke out in their apartment at 12 East 11th Ave. That was Oct. 20, the day when most students headed home for fall break.

The cause of the fire was clothing, paper and other personal items placed on top of a floor furnace, according to authorities.

While the apartment house had smoke detectors on each level, complying with city code, there was no smoke detector in the apartment occupied by the couple, a fire marshal said.
State law, however, requires detectors in each apartment of rental units.

A smiling couple
Lin always smiled, and she was known as a hard worker. She worked at the Center for Early Childhood Education on campus and at Ruyi, a Chinese restaurant at 113 Commercial St., owned by her landlord. She was pursuing a master’s in English.

Fan was sincere and kind. His teachers said he would help whoever asked a favor, even a big one. He was a sophomore chemistry major, but his hobbies were hunting and fishing.

Lin and Fan started to date shortly after they first met because they were so much alike.

Lin didn’t have any particular hobbies, but she liked to cook for Fan. Almost every day after class, Fan played video games with Shi Qiu, graduate business student and their roommate, and Lin would stay in the kitchen and cook for them. And when she finished cooking, Fan would leave Qiu alone and have dinner with Lin. They liked to watch movies while eating dinner.

“They were so dependent on each other,” Qiu said. “Like they were the only two people left in the world.”

Besides fishing and video games, Fan liked to smoke, but Lin was not a fan of this habit – she said it was bad for his health.

This semester, Qiu brought Fan his favorite cigar, Yuxi, from China and wanted to give it to him as a birthday gift. But Fan’s friends all knew that his girlfriend didn’t like him to smoke, so Qiu just hid the cigar in his room. When Fan had time, they would sneak away and smoke.

After dating for a long time, Fan’s parents knew about them being together, but Lin didn’t tell her parents. For a girl in China, introducing her boyfriend to her family means they are thinking about marriage.

This summer, Lin went back to China alone, and Fan’s mother took her to dinner. For Fan’s family, this dinner meant they approved of the couple’s relationship.

The two planned to go to Hawaii over winter break, but things changed in an instant.

The unexpected
The house they lived in was a single story wood frame structure, a triplex, with two apartments on the main floor and one in the basement, according to the fire report by Rex Fisher, battalion chief at the Emporia Fire Department. Fan and Lin lived in the upper east unit.

Fan sometimes made money by taking students who didn’t have cars to the Kansas City airport in his Chevrolet Impala.

The night of the fire, it was 25 degrees outside. Fan was going to take several international students to the airport at 7 a.m. the next day.

Fan called Tony Wang, owner of Ruyi Restaurant, to open the furnace for them, according to a neighbor. This was the first time they had turned on the furnace since Wang bought the house two months before.

Wang came to turn on the furnace from the basement apartment before 11 p.m. After that, Lin called a friend at about 11:20 p.m.

Right before midnight, Lan Cang, who lived in the basement of the house, heard a crack from the furnace in her kitchen and smelled smoke. She tried to call the fire department when she went out of her apartment and saw black smoke coming out of the window, but a passer-by standing right in front of the house told her that he had already called them.

The fire department received the call at 12:18 a.m. on Oct. 20 and arrived at 12:22 a.m., according to the fire report.

While Cang knocked the doors of the other two apartments, a girl who lived in the upper west apartment came out safely. But Fan and Lin didn’t answer the door. Cang thought Fan and Lin went to the airport that night, so she just waited for the firemen in front of the house.

But when they finally broke down the door the bystanders saw the flames.

Lin was taken out naked and put onto the grass, according to people at the scene. She was life-flighted to Wichita, and Fan died at the scene.

Who’s to blame?

The fire report said there was heavy smoke and a small amount of flames coming from behind the couch area, which was just inside the front door. The two victims were found about 10 feet inside the door in the middle of the floor.

The fire was started by combustibles on top of the floor furnace, according to the fire report.

“A rifle in a soft case as well as paper, books, clothes, a couch cushion and other items (were on the top of the floor furnace),” said Tom Andrews, fire marshal of Emporia Fire Department.

The fire is still under investigation and it is not clear who, if anyone, is legally responsible for the fire, Andrews said. Fan and Lin’s apartment did not have smoke detectors, but the other two apartments had them, according to Andrews.

According to Emporia City Code, the owner of each rental unit in the city which is offered for, or is under, rent or lease is responsible for providing each such rental unit with a heating system installed and maintained so as to be reasonably safe to the occupants and the structure and able to maintain a temperature of 60 degrees Fahrenheit to all livable rooms in the unit; one functioning, UL approved smoke detector for each level of a rental unit; and an unobstructed means of egress leading to the ground level as required by the building code.

Andrews said State law requires that landlords provide a working smoke detector in each apartment. And the tenant is responsible for maintaining and testing the smoke alarm.

Inspections from the fire department are also a way to enforce the fire code, Andrews said. But the fire department does not inspect each apartment, and it has no record of an inspection at 12 East 11th Avenue. This means that about 2,500 to 3,000 ESU students who live off campus might live under uninspected rental houses.

Also, heating systems and fire alarm systems are different around the world. International students, in particular, may lack knowledge of fire prevention or how to use an American furnace. There is no fire prevention orientation for international students at ESU.

The end of the love story
“They were a very friendly and very cute couple. I had a lot of respect for them,” said Garen Forsythe, founder and director of the Friends of Overseas College and University Students who picked Lin and Fan up from the MCI airport on their first day here. “If someone asks me who the 20 friendliest international students were here, Lin would be one of them. She was always smiling, and always wanted to talk,” Forsythe said.

Forsythe and his family went to Wichita when Lin was still in the burn unit.

“I went there to see her around noon, but I didn’t see her. She died right when I got there,” Garen said. “They needed somebody to identify her. Since I was there, they asked if I would do it. It was too hard.”

But for Lin’s best friend, Xinxin Cao, there is a better way to understand her death.

“Lin loved Fan so much, that she couldn’t leave him alone in the afterlife. So she followed his steps to heaven,” Cao said during the memorial service on Oct. 27 in Albert Taylor Hall.

Lin told Cao that if Fan ever left her, she would never believe in love again.

“But she doesn’t need to worry about that anymore, because they will be together forever,” Cao said.

Cao believes that in the afterlife, they will be happy together.

The death of the couple brought together several national organizations to help address the problem of off-campus fires and, in this case, those involving international students.

The Jasmine Jahanshahi Fire Safety Foundation donated 50 First Alert smoke alarms to Emporia Fire Department. The international foundation was formed after the 2001 deaths of Jahanshahi and three others in a Paris apartment that lacked smoke detectors, Andrews said.

“We will distribute these to international students that are living off campus,” Andrews said.

The Emporia Fire Department is working with ESU to provide fire safety information at activities like SWARM for international students, handing out fire prevention materials and doing a whole fire prevention inspection, Andrews said.

Tianhai Jiang/The Bulletin
jiang@esubulletin.com

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Infographic by Ellen Weiss

Founded in 1863 as the Kansas State Normal School and the first public institution of higher learning in Kansas, Emporia State has since had 16 presidents, including newly appointed Michael Shonrock.

The name of the university has changed four times – Kansas State Normal School, 1863; Kansas State Teachers College, 1923; Emporia Kansas State College, 1974; Emporia State University, 1977 – according to ESU’s website.

The school officially opened in 1865 with Lyman B. Kellogg as the first president and just 18 students enrolled in the stone schoolhouse. Kellogg was the only teacher until he hired Henry B. Norton.

Today, close to 6,000 students are enrolled. The university offers 43 undergraduate and 11 pre-professional programs, along with 27 graduate programs, including one Ph.D. program in library and information management.

Kenzie Templeton/The Bulletin

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Freshman history major Ace Finch keeps track of stats during ESU’s home game Saturday evening in White Auditorium. Finch was excited as men’s basketball team was victorious against the Central Missouri Mules, winning 74-72. Julie Thephachan/The Bulletin

Never missing a KU basketball game, Ace Finch, freshman history major, parks his wheel chair in the lobby, the only place that has cable TV in his dorm.

From the small town of Council Grove, Finch dreams of following in the footsteps of his father, Daryl Finch, who teaches science and coaches football and basketball at Council Grove High School.

“He is the type of kid that doesn’t like being told he can’t do something,” Daryl said. “I remember how angry he was at me when I wouldn’t let him play football. Like any parent, you only want the best for your child and going off to college has always been his goal, and unlike football, college was in his physical ability.”

Finch said that coaching basketball and teaching history at the high school or college level would be his dream job, “since playing is out of the question.”

Born with cerebral palsy, a neurological disorder that affects body movement and muscle coordination, Finch is limited to a wheel chair, which he uses to get around campus, and a walker he uses when he is in the dorms.

Finch could never play sports, but he said he has always done his best to stay active. Since sports were such a large part of his life during high school, taking stats for the football and basketball teams and running the 100 meter dash and throwing discus, Finch said that getting involved in ESU athletics was a major priority for him. This inspired him to contact head basketball coach Shaun Vandiver.

“I enjoy stat taking and that is what I do for the basketball team here,” Finch said. “It is what I have always done, besides running my mouth to officials during the games. I do what I can help out.”

Not being able to travel with the team upsets him, but Vandiver said that by next year arrangements will be made for him to attend away games.

“I enjoy it because it’s a challenge for me to keep up,” Finch said. “I had never been to an Emporia State basketball game before, and then here I am taking stats.”

Finch said that the teams both in high school and in college have made him feel like such a part of the team that not being able to play has never bothered him too much.

“There have always been times that I wish I could play, but the times when we are down by 30 points, I feel bad for the guys that are stuck on the field,” Finch said. “I have always known my role on the team – keep kids positive and take my stats.”

With only the help of his stepsister, Taylor Morgan, who is also a freshman at ESU, Ace now lives independently in the Towers Residence Hall. Morgan helps him put his shoes on in the morning and does his laundry for him, a job that Finch pays her $50 a month to do.

“Not adapting well was what I worried about most,” Finch said. “It wasn’t really the school work or not making friends because I knew I was going to do that – it was all the physical challenges. The first night I got here, it was hard. It took me like two hours to take a shower because the seat in the shower was higher than anything I have ever used before.”

Finch said he wanted to have the real college experience, and this motivated him to join the Alpha Kappa Lambda fraternity. Finch’s residential assistant, Jordan Yulich, junior elementary education major, is also a member and encouraged him to join.

“I think Ace is the reason the floor is so close,” Yulich said. “During the first few days they seemed to bond around him, doing the little things like pushing him to lunch. I wasn’t told I was going to have a resident with a disability, but the only thing that worried me was coming up with programs he could participate in.”

Being in a wheel chair did not stop residential life from putting him on the fifth floor of the Towers. Finch said the only thing that he worries about is both elevators malfunctioning. In the case of a fire, Finch is supposed to wait in the stairwell for firemen to come get him.

“For the most part, the campus is handicap accessible,” Finch said. “I know if I do need anything, all I have to do is ask. No one is going to turn me down because they would feel like a jerk. I want to try to maintain my independence, but for some reason my wheel chair battery always dies whenever a cute girl walks by.”

Rocky Robinson/The Bulletin

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LANE

When Michael Lane stepped down as Emporia State’s president last may, his resignation was unexpected. He made the announcement via a mass email to campus.

“When I interviewed with another campus over fall break last year, it was because I was nominated, and I was curious about the opportunity on a campus that was private,” Lane wrote in the BuzzIn announcement. “The act of visiting the other campus, however, has caused many to question my commitment to ESU.”

Lane was named a finalist in the presidential search at Millikin University in Decatur, Ill. last fall, but ultimately withdrew his name from the running.

In August, Vanessa Lamoreaux, spokesperson for the Kansas Board of Regents, declined comment when asked by The Bulletin if Lane was asked to resign.

Lane, who was selected by KBOR as ESU’s 15th President, began his presidency Nov. 1, 2006. His last day as president was June 30, making his tenure a bit more than four and one-half years.

On May 3, the regents sent Lane a letter thanking him for his time as president. The letter also outlined the terms of Lane’s transition from president to “consultant” to KBOR for ESU.

According to an open records request filed by The Bulletin on Nov. 17 and filled by Tracy Greene, records custodian and general counsel for ESU, on Nov. 22, Lane received a salary “equal to one-half of that portion” – $101,270 – which he received as ESU president, paid over a six-month period.

In addition to this salary, Lane also received “the same salary-associated fringe benefits” that he received as president, “as well as the same retirement, health, dental, and disability benefits that you presently receive,” according to the open records request.

But according the request, Lane also got reimbursement for moving from the presidential residence at 1522 Highland St., where he lived free of charge under his contract with ESU, and into his new residence.

Lane’s contract with ESU as a professor in the accounting and information systems department, where is wife, Peggy Lane, is currently chair, will begin on Jan. 2. Lane signed the contract on Aug. 8.

His annual salary, according to the contract is $122,000. Peggy Lane’s annual salary, according to her most recent contract, is $119,320.

*PDFs of the full open record document are available on The Bulletin’s website.

Kenzie Templeton/The Bulletin
editor@esubulletin.com

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Cartoon by Ellen Weiss

The last Emporia State presidency brought with it an antagonism that inflamed the relationship between the administration and the student body. The Lincoln MKT Luxury SUV given to former President Lane, Flentje and – if trends continues – our new president represents an extension of past mistakes and is a symbol of recklessness rather than reason.

Something as insignificant as a single automobile appears at first unworthy of press and attention, but it is. The belief that we should coax our presidents with gifts presupposes that our gifts are responsible. But it is not a responsible act to provide a vehicle that gets 17 miles per gallon.

The reasonable, ecologically friendly alternatives to this vehicle more than make up for any deficiency in luxury or value. The Bulletin believes the act of offering a reasonable alternative would be welcomed by the new president – if not welcomed, we could not fathom a better indicator of undesirable character.

Our university endows its presidents with a hefty salary, a place to live and a free, gas-guzzling car. Americans are appalled by the recent onslaught of CEO’s using company money for personal indulgence. Our anger is not born out of a desire for humility in them, but deference to those that suffer, financially or otherwise, from those indulgences.

The Bulletin rejects the notion that the perks of presidential appointment absolve perks of being fiscally, socially and environmentally responsible.

But remember, the car is a gift. If the vehicle were a purchase made by the president on his or her own accord, then there would be little room for argument. In this instance, however, it is crucial that we temper our gift giving with the same scrutiny that we apply to the president himself.

Ultimately, our new president accepts or declines the position based on the job, not the fringe benefits.

ESU is at a crossroads. Our history and prestige have plateaued, shaken by low enrollment numbers. We are part of, not separate from, the growing inability to provide affordable education. Our contribution to the world – our students – is scarred by an economy that has no room for them, cannot support them or rejects them outright.

It is obvious that change at a fundamental level is imperative, and we must take it upon ourselves to envision and enact those changes, just like our new president undoubtedly must do.

The Bulletin

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TEMPLETON

Personally, I was rooting for Michael Shonrock. But as a journalist and a student I am disturbed by the way in which he was chosen as Emporia State president by the Kansas Board of Regents.

For those who missed it, there was a lack of transparency – even secrecy – surrounding the recent presidential search. But of course, what’s new?

My suspicions began last spring, shortly after former President Lane resigned from ESU and Chair Gary Sherrer – an ESU alumnus – resigned from KBOR. One of his reasons Sherrer cited for resigning was the board’s refusal to put him on the presidential search committee for ESU.

In September, several on campus were concerned with the search’s progress when an update by Deryl Wynn, chair of the search committee, essentially revealed that there were many applicants “outside the realm of higher education,” a.k.a. the 1 percent. Steve Brown, former dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences, in particular encouraged faculty and staff to “keep an eye on” the search.

In one instance, I tried to contact members of the search committee for an update, but I was told instead to contact Vanessa Lamoreaux, spokesperson for KBOR. Those on the committee were wary of speaking with me, apparently because they weren’t the “official channel” for media to go through.

For a while, things sort of just moseyed along until the search committee announced that the candidates would begin on-campus interviews in November. Lamoreaux told The Bulletin the names of the candidates would only be released one day prior to their visit to “protect confidentiality for as long as possible.”

It’s one thing to want to protect confidentiality, but it’s another to create this unnecessary veil of secrecy simply for show or other, more underhanded reasons.

On top of this, there was the whole controversy over the online surveys for students and faculty to provide feedback on each candidate. Originally those surveys on ESU’s homepage were only supposed to be available for 24 hours following each candidate’s campus visit. But I suspect that in the wake of the Faculty Senate’s disdain over the lack of time there was to provide feedback, some head honcho decided it would be a good idea to give everyone more than just a day to complete the surveys.

Finally, the actual voting process seemed suspicious. Under Kansas law, a public body may reach a consensus in a closed “executive” session but may not take binding action. But doesn’t telling a candidate to come and be introduced to the public as the new ESU president before the “official” vote has actually taken place sound like binding action?

Lamoreaux said no. She cited the 1990 O’Hair case, in which USD 300 in Comanche County met in executive session, reached a consensus, and then immediately convened in open session to take binding action. No communication was made with the prospective employee before binding action was taken.

In President Shonrock’s case, KBOR contacted Shonrock and offered him the job with only a consensus, according to Lamoreaux.

If offering a candidate a job doesn’t represent binding action, then what does? The open vote was merely a rubber stamp of action already taken.

Assuming it was okay for KBOR to reach a consensus, when was the executive session held? An executive session, although closed to the public, still constitutes a meeting and requires notification.

Ideally, that would mean public notification.  Wouldn’t KBOR want the public to know when they’re meeting on important issues?

The Bulletin had heard a couple of weeks ago the new president would be announced on Dec. 9, and asked KBOR to confirm. KBOR refused, and Lamoreaux asked us where we got such notions. In fact, The Bulletin didn’t get official notice of the announcement—despite repeated requests of KBOR and university officials—until last Wednesday.

Such treatment was typical.

Lamoreaux told The Bulletin on Friday the executive session was held “the other night” when KBOR concluded candidate interviews. But last meeting listed on KBOR’s website was held on Nov. 16-17, before the final candidate came to campus. Was the website simply not updated? Was, perhaps, an executive session held without proper notification? Or did KBOR merely notify those who had submitted specific requests to be notified, and fail to notify the public at large?

It seems hard to believe that the Kansas Open Meetings Act, in one way or another, was not violated here, and it’s sad to think our new president was most likely appointed under false pretenses.

I hope that President Shonrock will break this cycle of mistrust and secrecy that has plagued ESU for too long. And like I said, I was rooting for the guy, so I have a feeling he’ll do the right thing.

Kenzie Templeton
editor@esubulletin.com

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WEISS

Keyword here – almost.

That’s right. I went to Osawatomie the day President Obama flew in to deliver his speech. Alas, instead of actually seeing his face in person, I had to be satisfied with knowing that I was meters away from him…on the other side of a wall…interviewing the Westboro Baptist Church.

I was really excited to be in the same town as the President. Preposterously excited. In addition to being able to say I had seen the President, even for a second, I was excited to be in the location of such an important event. Now that it’s over, I see that I really shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up.

First of all, my friends who actually did see him in person said it was just like seeing him on television. Guess I didn’t miss much in that department.

Second, I was seriously expecting him to deliver a historic speech. I made it out in my mind to be something that would go down in the books as an inspirational call to action – something we hadn’t heard before.

But when the time came, it all sounded like the same old stuff.

I can’t help myself – I agreed with everything he said. The middle class needs to be helped out. It’s unreasonable for the rich to have such low taxes. Education funding is the last thing that needs to be cut. Science will be essential to help keep the nation afloat. Former President Clinton eliminated the deficit, we can too. Right? I know!

I’m not going to pretend like I know jack about politics, but it doesn’t take a political science major to realize that Obama has had almost four years to not just talk about, but demonstrate what his beliefs are. And yet, so much has stayed the same. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.

I was almost expecting him to apologize and make excuses for not doing it already. Instead, he just plowed on with the same, inspiring words that his new campaign will rely upon.

It made me realize he’s a politician. I understand that the changes he’s trying to make are being opposed on all sides. He might not be our savior, but he’ll do as much as the situation will allow.

In the end, I went home thinking, “At least he’s not Rick Perry.”

Ellen Weiss/The Bulletin
opinion@esubulletin.com

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