Wendler's priorities not student friendly
Anyone who has read the DAILY EGYPTIAN's Voices pages during the course of this semester knows that we have not cut Chancellor Walter Wendler much slack. On issues ranging from his comments on homosexuality to the "Southern at 150" plan, we have made it clear to our readers and to the administration where we stand.
Sometimes, that has meant standing against our chancellor.
Our critical commentary is not inspired by personal animosity toward Wendler. We simply believe he has given us reasons to criticize his leadership of this University.
But perhaps we've been too harsh. Perhaps Wendler has not gotten a fair shake. If that's the case, the best way for him to present his views and defend himself is to talk to the newspaper whose target audience is the University community he leads.
Time and time again, he has failed to do so.
Wendler made time to travel to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to interview for a position there. He made time to attend the Saluki football game Saturday. He made time to speak to WJPF radio to discuss the possibility of his leaving SIUC for Texas. He makes time to visit high schools on a regular basis to recruit prospective students. But he couldn't make time to meet with the DAILY EGYPTIAN editorial board yesterday after his office initiated the meeting and made the appointment with us more than two weeks ago.
Our frustration has grown over the course of the semester, as Wendler has repeatedly declined our reporters' attempts to get comment from him on the critical issues this University faces.
But it is not our personal frustration that matters to our readers. What matters is that Wendler, by declining our effort to speak with him, is turning his back on the students whose tuition helps pay his salary and the faculty who look to him for leadership. The DAILY EGYPTIAN is the medium through which he can best speak to this campus' students and faculty, and he seems unwilling to take advantage of the opportunity to do so.
Students and faculty should be able to expect the leader of this University to speak to them about important campus issues rather than let others do most of the talking for him.
Good leadership requires accountability. It requires an openness to questions - and the
willingness to answer them - from those who doubt that leadership and the direction it takes. Wendler doesn't seem to care much for these qualities, and it is the community he serves that suffers for it.
It doesn't have to be this way. Our door will remain open to Chancellor Wendler anytime he wants to come by, appointment or not. In fact, we urge him to talk to us before Texas A&M Corpus Christi's Dec. 7 expected date for choosing its new president, rather than three days afterward, as his office has suggested.
By that time, Chancellor Wendler, a meeting may no longer have any point.
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