The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of SIU at Carbondale. Except during vacations and exam weeks, The Daily Egyptian is published Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and TWThF during the summer semester."

Wendler a candidate for LSU job

Despite telling the Daily Egyptian he was not applying to other universities, Chancellor Walter Wendler confirmed Friday that he applied last month for the chancellor position at Louisiana State University, a job that pays $500,000-more than twice of what he makes at SIUC.

Wendler met with members of the DE staff Friday following a week filled with uncertainty by interviewing with Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and being a possible candidate for chancellor of LSU.

Wendler said the ongoing talks with LSU are not serious.

"This assumption that because I am talking to an institution or two means that I am leaving is not a valid assumption," he said. "I could retire from this place."

Sean O'Keefe, NASA's chief administrator, is one of the top candidates for the LSU position. According to CNN, NASA insiders said Sunday that O'Keefe will accept the job today.

Despite the questions circling Wendler's ability to lead SIUC, he said he already has plans laid out for the coming year. He said he wants to focus much of his energies on the University's faculty reward system.

But when asked where he saw himself in three or four years, Wendler was a little more ambiguous.

"I see myself working at a university and trying to make it better, working hard to improve the quality of it, trying to afford educational opportunity to students, improve the quality of work environment for faculty, and do the things that make a good university," he said. He first applied to Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi in mid-November, and after two trips down to the small campus for interviews with the search committee and its Board of Regents, Wendler was not offered the job.

"At most good universities - and I don't mean this to sound immodest - but the people who are getting something done, then other institutions tend to show some interest," he said. "It is true though that, at universities, the length of tenure becomes pretty important for the campus leaders. But if everyone who came stayed, it doesn't make a good university. That's just the nature of it."

He also said Friday that he has had eight or 10 universities approach him about applying at their respective institution since he has been at SIUC.

Wendler also said Friday he would begin regularly attending the Faculty Senate meetings after almost a semester of absence.

"I'm not going to go in there and just sit there," Wendler said. "I'm not going to do that anymore. It doesn't make any sense. I want to present some ideas and ask for specific feedback."

Wendler raised the ire of the Faculty Senate earlier in September when he informed the representative body that he would no longer attend its meetings regularly. In response, the senate passed a resolution requesting the chancellor return, citing moral and legal obligations.

The chancellor said he decided to stop attending after two years of feeling like the meetings were not the best use of his or the senators' time. Last year, he brought the senate president onto his executive committee, which he called the primary policymaker of the University.

Wendler said he had hoped that allowing them to participate and vote in those meetings would increase communication.

"In some ways, I think it has worked, but now there is this perception that I don't care, which is not true at all," Wendler said. "But now if the perception is this, then there is some valid truth to it."

Wendler also met with DE staffers in September to address issues surrounding his comments about homosexuality. In that meeting, Wendler promised to create a task force to examine gay issues on campus. When reporters asked him Friday about the status of the committee, the chancellor said all he knew was that it has been formed.

The chancellor said one of his proudest accomplishments is the "Southern at 150" plan, the University's guide to becoming a top 75 public research institution. He said the plan, which outlines SIUC's goals for almost 20 years, must be "intergenerational" and able to adapt to the University as it changes.

"When you haven't had a plan that people clearly hold up as 'our plan,' just trying to get that down is a big accomplishment," Wendler said.

 

 

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