Last we checked, Wichita State was a public university funded with public dollars.
But both the hiring and the sudden departure of President Jay Golden were shrouded in secrecy and anything but public.
WSU students, faculty, taxpayers and the Wichita community deserve better.
We deserve answers.
Last year the Kansas Board of Regents, which oversees state universities and colleges, decided that the search for late President John Bardo’s replacement would be closed to the public.
The university spent about $129,000 to recruit and interview potential candidates. Most members of a 20-person search committee — all except chairman Steve Clark, a Wichita real estate developer — were under a gag order and prohibited from discussing the search.
Regents met out of state, in a hotel conference room near the Kansas City airport, to interview finalists. Reporters were asked to leave the room. The finalists’ names were never released.
Then last Halloween, immediately following a vote by the regents at Wichita State, Golden was introduced as WSU’s new president.
It was telling — or foreboding, or perhaps just ironic? — that Golden vowed to move the university forward with transparency, shared governance, inclusion and respect.
“I hope that I work hard to be able to earn the trust and respect of people in the community,” he said last fall.
Now, less than a year after taking over, Golden is gone. His resignation came without warning or explanation following a hastily-called Regents meeting. And once again, no one is talking.
Jon Rolph, a Wichita restaurant owner and member of the Board of Regents, said the resignation was not related to Golden’s decision last spring to downplay a virtual commencement speech by Ivanka Trump.
But you can’t blame folks for presuming that was a factor.
Clark — a longtime booster, namesake of WSU’s new YMCA and Student Wellness Center and chairman of that secret search committee — said major donors had threatened to pull support from the university if Golden didn’t go.
The new president appeared to survive that flap in June. But why the silent, “nothing to see here” approach now?
