Gary Widom returned my call on Wednesday.
Unfortunately, it was only to give me the courtesy of letting me know that he did not want to comment on the record about withdrawing his candidacy.
He did make one on-the-record statement, though: He extended an offer to the students of student media. He wants us to know that he’d be more than happy to come speak to us sometime as a guest or even to host us for a tour of TV station CBS 12.
That’s when it really hit me how great of a candidate we lost out on. Widom is an FAU alumnus who wanted to give back. He’s an experienced TV reporter who would have had no problem finding employment in the field, but he was willing to take a pay cut to be able to work with students.
The pressure’s on
And now I believe the search committee will be pressured by Student Affairs to accept a subpar candidate from the same round of candidates that Widom came from, because at this point, getting a warm body in the Department of Student Media would be less of an embarrassment than starting the search over.
In fact, the pressure has already started.
Ayden Maher, student body president
On Tuesday, just seven minutes after the search committee chair e-mailed the committee members to tell them that Widom had withdrawn, fellow ASMD search committee member and Student Body President Ayden Maher called me from his personal cell phone (as opposed to his FAU-paid, public-record business cell).
He said he wanted to know how I felt about the options (i.e., hiring runner-up Ron Shearer or starting the search all over again), but he seemed more interested in selling me on his preferred option: Maher repeated and repeatedly argued for his preference for hiring Shearer multiple times in the 11-minute conversation.
I believe he was only doing so, though, because high-ranking Student Affairs administrators had pressured him to.
For one, Maher admitted that he never even met Shearer.
For two, Maher has never picked up the phone to ask my opinion before — and we’ve served on the search committee together since this summer, during which time multiple other applicants have withdrawn. In fact, Maher never calls me at all unless he’s returning an interview request.
For three, throughout the second round of the search, Maher fought for the other runner-up, Chuck King, rather than Shearer. Why would he suddenly change his mind unless someone as high-ranking and influential-on-Student-Government-members as Student Affairs’ Senior VP Charles L. Brown had pressured him?
The secret’s out
Charles L. Brown, head of Student Affairs
So, why would Student Affairs pressure the committee to hire a runner-up when they’re supposed to have students’ best interests at heart?
Here’s why I think they would: Control is closer to their heart.
Think about it.
Widom was extremely enthusiastic throughout the interview process and initially accepted (albeit informally) the ASMD job when it was offered to him. Why would he change his mind unless Student Affairs gave him a reason to?
I think they gave him a reason to because they didn’t like him. (I’ve already spelled out how Student Media Director Marti Harvey was willing to break the rules to ensure that applicant Chuck King got the job, so we know Widom wasn’t her first choice.)
I believe Student Affairs likes employees they can control, and Widom would be no such employee. He has a backbone, and he’s outspoken. As one administrator put it, “He’s got some spunk to him.” All of these qualities would have made him exactly what student media needs but exactly what Student Affairs doesn’t want.
For one, there’s nothing they’d have as leverage over him (all he has to hide are some speeding tickets — I already checked). For two, because he’s thoroughly experienced, he would never be reliant on his job as ASMD (which means he’d be less likely to be willing to do his superiors’ dirty work out of concern that he’d lose the only job he could get): Unlike the rest of the administrators in Student Affairs, he could easily find a job elsewhere if he had to choose between doing something unethical and losing his job.
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UP NEXT: The argument I just advanced may be only my opinion, but I will further support it with the latest example of how Student Affairs prefers to hire needy employees because they’re easier to control.
Tags: Ayden Maher, Charles L. Brown, Chuck King, Gary Widom, Ron Shearer
