As President Glassman’s term comes to end on June 30,2023, a new term for another president must begin. With that, the start of a search for a proper candidate for the position is already in motion.

Well, the search comes with a cost. A six-figure cost. Eastern is set to spend over $110,00o on finding a new president. The recipent of this large bill is Greenwood/Asher & Associates.

A contract with the executive search company was signed on June 29, 2022. The $110,000 will be divided into three bills of $36,666.

But the payments do not stop there. There is also an undeterminded additional expense for client expenses. This line includes candidate travel, background work, degree and education verification, and even private investigators.

Who knew this search would be this expensive? What if the search goes longer than a year? Could this total pile up to an even greater expense?

There is even a disclaimer that Greenwood/Asher & Associates are not responsible for the performance of the chosen candidate. If the candidate is fired within a year, the firm will find a replacement.

We at the Daily Eastern News are concerned about this grand bill expected with the search for our new university president.

Our last editorial was discussing how valued professors wanted a livable wage due to a global pandemic and national inflation. But here is adminstration spending six-figures on finding a new president.

It is just disappointing to see as our professors desperately deserve a wage that reflects their hard works and the effort they put into making Eastern what it is. A place of higher learning and educating thousands of students for a large variety of careers and services.

Will our next president see the desperate need for this change? Will they see that our professors deserve more?

One of the various additional fees is advertising. That could have been a professor’s raise to improve their quality of life and support their families.

Another additional fee is for the Mintz Group. This is a company who provides verification, building security emergency preparedness, asset tracing, computer forensics, and investigation services.

Why hire two different groups to look into candidates when administration could have found one company who did both? It is the simple things like this that concern us. Was the university looking into the best financial options?

While searching for a president is a huge undertaking, we know there are processes that come with it and may only make sense from an administration standpoint.

But this is what our tuition money is going towards. We pay to attend Eastern and we deserve to know where our money goes.

This new president is representing and making large decisions for Eastern. Students should know the processes that these candidates go through and especially the financial reasons behind them.