Fallon Deatherage
News Editor
Presidential candidate finalist, Charles Wight, visited ISU campuses to share his vision for the university and his plans as its president.
Wight has served as president at Weber State University for the last six years. At the forums he championed his accomplishments and used them as examples of what he would like to see happen at ISU.
An example he used was his work to improve enrollment, a goal he has if he were to become ISU’s next president. At Weber State, he hired an independent consultant to create a 14-point plan to boost enrollment and retain students. He plans to use what he learned to create a plan for ISU as well.
“Perhaps most important is student retention,” Wight said. “Our emphasis has to be on student success in order to make sure that students don’t leave, or worse, completely dropout.”
Part of his plan to boost enrollment would include outreach to interest potential students beginning at young ages, something he was part of at Weber State where he enjoyed community demonstrations for the area’s children. The relationship between the Pocatello community and the university is something that many are concerned about.
“As someone who’s from Poky, I think there’s a disconnect between the community and the university,” Logan Schmitt, ASISU Finance Officer, said at the student forum. “How would you bridge that gap?”
To order to answer this question, Wight again cited his work at Weber State, where he created the College Town Charter that created open communication between the university and Ogden. He would like to do something similar at ISU in order to create open channels for communication between the city and the university.
“The charter allowed open dialogue that benefited the university and community,” Wight said.
He also cited the charter as vital in allowing to the community and university to tackle difficult issues that created a culture of inclusion.
“The university must be a leader for diversity and social justice for the benefit of educational excellence and for the community,” he said.
Wight wants to make positive changes at ISU, but he will not be making them all at once if he becomes the president. For the first part of his presidency, Wight would spend his time learning more about the issues at ISU, a period of 100 days that he calls a listening campaign. Only after this will he begin to take actions to create changes.
“I will need to spend a lot of time listening,” he said. “ Waiting is hard, but it will keep me from making mistakes.”
Wight said this is an attitude he would take when it comes to resolving the fractured relationship between the ISU’s administration and faculty. As a former chairman of a faculty senate, he believes his experiences can be valuable in creating unity.
But there still remained the question of why Wight would leave a presidential position at Weber State to accept one at ISU.
“When I became president at Weber State, I set five things I wanted to accomplish,” he said. “I accomplished those things and it’s time for a new challenge. If I’m looking for a new challenge, this is it.”
