News judgment

[JACKGUYII]

Re: News judgment

To quote the article, the $156k included (with my estimates for costs*):

• Travel to meetings, interviews, and the announcement of the new president. That includes use of the State plane for regents, staff and members of the search committee.(45k - The regents are spread throughout the state, and I'm sure all were in attendance for a week or so through all the interviews and discussion. Now let's add in the time of faculty and other university staff that interviewed candidates.)
• Rent of SDSU's Performing Arts Center to make the announcement, as well as for a meal and lodging costs (25k)
• Consultant's fees and advertising; (70k)
• Miscellaneous costs, like shipping. (1k)
• Candidate travel reimbursements. (15k - 5k per 3 canidates)

IMO, anyone complaining about this cost has never been in management, run a business, or operated another similar enterprise. That's not to mention the compliance required for governmental hiring/interviewing.

*These costs are my complete guesses with no inside or outside information. This is a message board right? I don't have to know anything to post, right?

I'm in management and own my company and it still seems like a large expenditure.

[RabbitObsessed]

Re: News judgment

I like the idea of an active press auditing the expenditure of taxpayer dollars. There is far too little of it especially at the national level. That said, KELO anchor, Don Jorgensen, tipped his bias by framing the news story in saying that an "existing faculty member" got the position so they (SDSU) "didn't have to go far." In other words, why spend $156,000 if the right person was already there? It was a little comical when he said the process "involved the use of a state plane." That's a killer charge. The critical component missing from the report was a simple question: What is the average cost of a national search for the president of a university? Yes, $156,000 sounds like a lot of money but I have nothing to compare it with.

I agree. I think it's a good thing that news organizations are doing this type of reporting. The way this article was written was hardly neutral. It was written in a way that the author had their opinion formed before they finished the reporting. Nothing wrong with having an opinion, but to frame the story as reporting and not an opinion piece seems disingenuous.

[joeboo22]

Re: News judgment

The fact that they hired a guy from down the hall didn't help the image of this article any, and at the same time it shouldn't be included.

$25K for a meal, lodging and rental of a facility? - That is high, I don't care who you are, that is high; I've been to some fancy weddings where the family lodges a large amount of people, and has a nice dinner and a nice facility that they don't own and its doesn't cost anywhere near that.

The cost of travel is what is excessive in my opinion, you are giving the candidates $5K for travel, and at the same time saying it cost you $45K to fly and get people together for interviews? At the same time you are paying a consulting firm $70K, what are they doing if it is costing you this much in interview cost?

Now I don't think anything is crooked here, I don't think that the regents were spending $10K a piece at topless clubs or anything like that, but it begs the question, and its more on the regents then any specific university. Why does it seem that they want every Universities budget to get tighter and at the same time seem to spend money as freely as they can.

O and I agree that if you want to divulge into corruption go after the SDHSAA

[Jacked_Up]

Re: News judgment

Making a bad choice for the top leadership positon at the state's largest university probably would cost South Dakota a heck of lot more than $156,000. There are much more worthwhile topics for KELO and other media outlets to "investigate."

[SlapJack]

Re: News judgment

I don't have a problem with the report. It's good public knowledge.

However, the comments below it set me off. "Should've just posted it on Monster.com." That's where all the qualified applicants for University presidents hang out.

[jackmd]

Re: News judgment

I don't have a problem with the report. It's good public knowledge.

However, the comments below it set me off. "Should've just posted it on Monster.com." That's where all the qualified applicants for University presidents hang out.

You should know better than to read those comments.

To report on this would be fine but this is premature and lacking in content. Get all the facts first. That's the biggest problem with so called "reporting" these days. It's a competition to be the first to break the story. Screw the facts, it's not about the truth it's about the potential drama, comments and vitriol.

There are no consequences if the reporting is in error or lacking substance. There's always another avenue to get it in front of the public.

[bigticket1]

Re: News judgment

You should know better than to read those comments.

To report on this would be fine but this is premature and lacking in content. Get all the facts first. That's the biggest problem with so called "reporting" these days. It's a competition to be the first to break the story. Screw the facts, it's not about the truth it's about the potential drama, comments and vitriol.

There are no consequences if the reporting is in error or lacking substance. There's always another avenue to get it in front of the public.

It is the May sweeps rating period that determines advertising rates etc.., so stations are tempted to go sensational to try to attract viewer numbers.

[WestSideRabbit]

Re: News judgment

Don Jorgenson is the brother of Jerry Jorgenson, former Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences. Jerry didn't receive an invite to campus for an interview for the presidential opening. I would hope Don's journalistic integrity/reporting wouldn't be compromised by sour family grapes.

[goon]

Re: News judgment

Don Jorgenson is the brother of Jerry Jorgenson, former Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences. Jerry didn't receive an invite to campus for an interview for the presidential opening. I would hope Don's journalistic integrity/reporting wouldn't be compromised by sour family grapes.

How many brothers does he have? Pretty sure one of them goes to our church....or use too.

[Jacks#1Fan]

Re: News judgment

We pick a new president for South Dakota's largest university (and largest outreach to the state with extension and research) every 7-10 years. IMO the KELO thing is just stupid (not the amount, or details, but the editorial comment that accompanied the story). We may have the best person on campus (and that is the way it worked out), but how do you know until you go out and do a search, and follow up with interviews and thorough research on the top candidates after you have winnowed it down to finalists? Getting good candidates is often a crap shoot when you have an employee on staff who has applied.

I was on the search committee when Sherwood Berg was hired, and know how much work goes into the process. Bottom line: I think we did just fine, but I'm sure everybody involved with SDSU as alumni, students, faculty members, service employees and friends, hopes that when the job comes open, we do our best to determine that we are getting the best president we can.

[Nidaros]

Re: News judgment

We pick a new president for South Dakota's largest university (and largest outreach to the state with extension and research) every 7-10 years. IMO the KELO thing is just stupid (not the amount, or details, but the editorial comment that accompanied the story). We may have the best person on campus (and that is the way it worked out), but how do you know until you go out and do a search, and follow up with interviews and thorough research on the top candidates after you have winnowed it down to finalists? Getting good candidates is often a crap shoot when you have an employee on staff who has applied.

I was on the search committee when Sherwood Berg was hired, and know how much work goes into the process. Bottom line: I think we did just fine, but I'm sure everybody involved with SDSU as alumni, students, faculty members, service employees and friends, hopes that when the job comes open, we do our best to determine that we are getting the best president we can.

Very well put and you speak from experience. I am relieved that my telephone never rang for asking me to be on a selection committee, but I get robo calls every day for other causes.