Search committee selection

USG president PJ Kim '01 said of his decision to appoint Lisa Lazarus '02 to the presidential search committee: "It was really a lot of work — reading almost 100 applications. I could have just picked someone, but I wanted to make the best decision."

We're sure it was a lot of work for Kim and we're sure that, in the end, it was the best decision for Kim. But what about for the rest of us?

On the same day that President Shapiro announced his departure, the presidential search commitee began to take shape. University Board of Trustees president Robert Rawson '66 instructed Kim to find a second student representative. Kim then asked students to submit applications to him. Out of the original 100 applicants, Kim called back 11 students for interviews. Finally, Kim chose the applicant he felt was most qualified.

Why Rawson and Kim opted for such a system over democracy is perplexing — and disturbing.

The University faculty and staff members were given the opportunity to vote — albeit in some cases from a preselected pool — for their respective representatives. Undergraduates, however, were forced to leave the decision in the hands of a single student — PJ Kim.

The presidential search committee will select Princeton's next president, thereby setting the tone of the University for at least the next decade. Every undergraduate had a vested interest in Kim's choice, which is precisely why it never should have been solely his choice to make in the first place.

The other problem with the undergraduate appointment process is that the second student representative will always owe her seat to Kim. Lazarus stated in yesterday's 'Prince' article that she and Kim are on the committee as equals. But how can they be?

Kim chose Lazarus because he thought she would bring a different perspective to the committee. Lazarus, a member of the Human Values Forum, comes from outside the USG framework and was abroad last semester. Once she "gets back into the swing of things" — as she stated in a recent interview — she will undoubtedly demonstrate her own unique perspective on what Princeton's future president should be like.

But regardless of what opinions Lazarus offers about the next presidency, Kim's perspective is already being over-represented. By choosing a second undergraduate representative without consulting students, Kim had the exclusive authority to determine which of the various student perspectives would be represented on the search committee and which would not.

There were literally hundreds of qualified students for this position — which is, of course, not to say that Lazarus is not among them. But in an age where online voting is just a click away, we are very disappointed that the undergraduates were never consulted about their own representative. We vote for USG representatives, class representatives and club representatives every year. We evaluate professors and the quality of their courses each semester. We are consulted every day about the minutiae of campus life.

Yet no one asked us about the largest issue the University will face during our college careers. The at-large student representative on the presidential search committee may be the most important and influential student position on campus for years to come. That person was supposed to be our representative — not PJ's.