Lessons in ends and means

From the minutes of the August 18, 2008 BoR meeting:

Mr. Jones called on Mr. Mark Gold, Student Body President at Texas A&M University. Mr. Gold thanked the members of the Board and the administration for allowing them to present public testimony...He said there were two main reasons that he recommended a formal search process to be considered for this position. Mr. Gold said that one of the things that make Texas A&M so special and one of the reasons he liked being a student leader at this university was because of the principle of shared governance...

Mr. Jones asked Mr. Gold if he had heard of Dr. John Koldus and if so, had he heard of his success as Vice President for Student Services. Mr. Gold responded in the affirmative. Mr. Jones asked Mr. Gold if he knew that Dr. Koldus was selected by the President and there was not a nationwide search in the selection. Mr. Gold responded in the affirmative...Mr. Gold commented that to his knowledge, Dr. Koldus was the first Vice President for Student Affairs, so to have a national search for a position that didn’t exist at the time was, to his understanding, the reason it didn’t happen. Mr. Jones said he was not concerned with the reason, but looking for the result and the result was that we had a very good Vice President for Student Services in Dr. Koldus and his wife. Mr. Gold agreed...

Mr. Jones then called on Mr. Nicholas “Nick” Petree, Memorial Student Center (MSC) President, for public testimony ... Mr. Jones asked Mr. Petree what was more important to him as a student leader – the process or the end result. Mr. Petree said that the end result in the long term is the most important thing...

Dr. McKinney stated that this process was according to the rules that exist. He asked Mr. Petree to help him understand what process they would propose that would yield a better chance of success and said that it might actually yield the same person. Mr. Petree said the nature of students was that they were greedy on this process of shared governance. Dr. McKinney asked for clarification on the term “shared governance.”...