The week after spring break, the three university presidential candidates visited Eastern and held forums with students, faculty, staff, and members of the community.

Student attendance was not high at the forums for university presidential candidates Sue Hammersmith, William Perry and Blair Lord, but multiple members of the Student Government attended the meetings.

Student Senate member Jeff Melanson attended all three candidates’ student forums.

“I would love to see more students, they’d experience a process that they won’t be able to see again,” Melanson said.

He also said he wished more time was allowed for the candidates to be questioned.

“I had several more questions, but not enough time,” Melanson said.

Student vice president for academic affairs Dave Keyes, who attended the student forum for Hammersmith, said that it was the quality of students who attended the forum that made the forum well worth it.

“Students that did attend did ask several good questions,” Keyes said.

Student Senate member Kent Ohms thought that the forums he attended – Hammersmith and Perry – went well overall.

Ohms said he wasn’t surprised that there was a low student turnout for the forums, which he partially attributed to students having class.

Student Body President Sean Anderson was one of the two student members – Amanda Raz, student executive vice president was the other – to be on the Presidential Search Advisory Committee.

He said that someone he brought to one of the forums didn’t even know why it applied to her.

“A lot of students didn’t know why their president is important,” Anderson said. “Not a lot of people know what the president does.”

Many people don’t know that students have a say in the process, he said.

Freshman special education major Hannah Chamberlain said she was unaware that there was a search for a new university president.

“I’d care if I knew about it,” Chamberlain said.

There were also some students, like sophomore communication studies major Jon David and junior English major Faith Elam, who heard about it but said they knew little about the process.

David suggested running messages on the campus information channel to inform students.

Elam knew about the search but didn’t pay much attention it.

She suggested that another way to get students involved was to set up a tent outside to inform the students about the candidates.

Students might think that there is something being given away if it was outside, Elam said.

She also suggested that fliers be passed out to the students.

Robert Webb, chair of the Presidential Search Advisory Committee, said he wasn’t aware of the number of students that attended the forums.

“I would be hesitant to say that there was student apathy,” he said. “I say there is student interest.”

There was a lot of coverage in the media and Webb believed that the students were following it.

The meetings were scheduled to be as convenient as possible for students, Webb said.

“I imagine students had class,” Webb said.

Although students were welcome to attend any of the five open sessions throughout the day, the sessions that were supposed to be primarily for students were all held at 2 p.m.

The new university president will be publicly introduced at a Board of Trustees meeting the week of April 9.