Presidential Candidate partakes in open forum from MWSU Campus Watch on Vimeo.
University presidential candidate Andrew Rogerson spoke to a crowd of no more than 15 students on Feb. 25 in an open forum, the second of three forums for the candidates.
One of the questions students asked concerned the importance of presidential visibility on campus.
“You can be very visible on the campus. I think walking across the campus and saying good morning to the students is huge to having the students know that you are the president and you are interested in them,” Rogerson, provost and vice president of academic affairs at Sonoma State University, said, “I would definitely attend as many student functions as I could. I would attend games. I would attend equal number of faculty events. I think the president’s job is to be out there and know what is going on in the university and what the mood of the university is.”
As important as visibility, students said they want the new president to reflect the current president’s approachability.
“(Rogerson) seems like he was approachable. Even if you didn’t know him, you could still go up to him and shake his hand and he wouldn’t treat you any different than anyone higher up,” Juan Mercado, radiology sophomore, said.
Rogerson is big on retention and has a passion for seeing students succeed.
“We must never give up on our students. The University of New Mexico is a great model. They went after 2,000 students who had left who had 90 units completed and brought 1,000 of them back and graduated them. Never give up,” Rogerson said.
More information: Presidential search
