While people are interested in the GOP presidential nomination race, a search close to home has VSU looking at a different type of candidate.

VSU has been putting the VSU presidential candidates through their paces with interviews, meetings, and public speeches. The student attendance was minimal at the speeches. At Dr. Bill McKinney’s speech event, the room was filled, but the number of students could be counted on one hand.

During these Q&A’s, students were given the opportunity to question the candidates. Organizers even handed out a survey for students to provide their input into the selection process. Which leads us to ask you: Do you realize the impact you can have on this presidential search?

History professor Louis Schmier gave us his wish list for the new president. One of the points that he brings to light is the comment: “I am looking for a president who doesn’t want a bunch of ‘Yes persons around him, who buries him or herself in meetings so that he or she is inaccessible.” We want our president to be accessible.

If students don’t offer their input, imagine where we will be if VSU hires another Dr. Ronald Zaccari. Do you want a president that uses his position to expel students with whom he has an issue?

We have been lucky with Dr. Louis Levy, the interim president. He has an open door policy with students.

If VSU hires someone who doesn’t have that open door policy, our ability to speak directly with the administration could suffer. That might affect the SGA’s ability to work with the president and administration. Imagine a campus where students don’t have the ear of the president.

It is our place to question the candidates. After all, the president will steer this facility toward a possible new direction.

The candidate could lead us in utilizing new technologies, a goal into which every college should be looking.

The next president will be the new face of VSU, and we should try to put our best face forward. That face is best chosen with the assistance of the students, through asking questions and providing our input to the administration and board of regents.

It’s not like the board of regents or administration has to illicit our input, but since they have, it is our duty to accept this opportunity.

Our presidential search may not be as grand as the ongoing GOP national search, but it will have a much bigger impact on VSU as a whole.