The Board of Regents conducted President Jesse Rogers’ annual performance, compensation and contract review, where praise was given. The Board recommended the continuation of Rogers’ compensation package, including salary, benefits and deferred compensation at the same level for the 2013-2014 year.

Long story short, the Board was pleased enough with Rogers’ performance to extend his contract.

While the Board of Regents gives Rogers an A+, the real grade the leader should receive is a solid B.

Minus a brief stint as interim president in 1980, Rogers has served as university president for 12 years. In that time, Rogers mostly stirred himself away from controversy that was until the infamous Harvey House scandal, where the university squandered away money to keep up renovations on a $1.1 million home, which The Wichitan broke in November of 2010.

He was reluctant to talk to the media about anything, instead expressing himself via press releases and emails to faculty and staff. The local media trashed him and despite other factors, he was blamed for the incident.

Since then, I believe Rogers has learned his lesson.

The Harvey House debacle shaped him as not only a university president, but as a leader. Whenever he is criticized now, he doesn’t hide behind anything or anybody. Last semester, when anonymous letters surfaced listing his flaws as president, he quickly defended himself and the choices he made for the university. Rogers’ improvement should be highlighted as a major plus.

I have interviewed Rogers dozens of times for The Wichitan and he has been nothing but polite, knowledgeable about university problems, optimistic and yet logical about future goals. He is an all-around nice person.

Did I mention he has an offbeat sense of humor as well?

Rogers’ personality, for those who have had the pleasure to speak to him one-on-one is not the problem. It is the image of Rogers that is projected from his lack of interacting with staff, faculty and most importantly, students.

I’ve attended enough Faculty Senate committee meetings to know faculty members believe administrators and professors are on separate ends of the spectrum. Rogers has been ridiculed for not dealing one-on-one with professors, instead dealing with the executive board of the Faculty Senate and college deans and sometimes yearly with the department chairs.

While there is still room for improvement in a perfect world, professors should relay any problem with the university to their dean. But relying on that alone is not effective. Most department chairs do double-duty as professors, so if Rogers wants to know the truth about what the classroom obstacles are, he should make time, more than once a year, to meet with them.

Finally, Rogers’ relationship with students is pretty much non-existent. Unless you are a student leader on campus, it is safe to say that the first and last time you saw Rogers was during orientation. It is doubtful you know where Rogers’ office is or that he actually does care about what students think.

Those who are quick to complain about Midwestern or Rogers in 140 characters or less on Twitter, should consider sending Rogers an email or setting up an appointment with him. While Rogers is busy, he repeatedly says he will meet with students as time allows.

He is traveling back and forth to Austin during this legislative session fighting to make higher education a focus, which is something we should be grateful for. He is meeting with donors to encourage them to give back to the university. As Midwestern’s leader, these are things he is good at. But he will make time.

He is a great advocate for Midwestern.  He loves his university and wants it to be in competition with the larger universities.

Still, Rogers seems untouchable. When Rogers traps himself in the Hardin building in his spacious office overlooking the quad, it can make people believe their opinions or concerns don’t matter.

This is his biggest flaw – a flaw of which he is very aware.

Rogers has said his leadership style isn’t to walk around campus, meeting and greeting students and faculty. His style is more of allowing the deans and other administrators to relay messages to him.

If Rogers took the time out of his schedule to put his full attention on bettering his relationship with the student body, his performance rate among students would improve.

I am issuing out a challenge to Rogers — get out there. Take the time to improve his relationship with students. Meet with students in each college to answer questions from students and for him to ask questions as well.

I am sure he wants to know the real reason why enrollment is declining. Marketing and recruiting experts can only know so much. Students can give Rogers a real-life picture of the shape Midwestern is in.

Rogers should speak for himself, while students should interact with him, if only for one afternoon.