The College’s President Search Committee has been tasked with assisting the search for the Hilltop’s next president as President Joseph Favazza prepares for leaving the Hilltop at the end of the academic year. As we power through the second half of the academic year, the clock is beginning to tick on finding Favazza’s successor. Despite how much time has passed, we have no clear idea who the committee is looking at or what they have in mind for the next President of the College. The issue right now lies in the transparency of the search. We have received zero legitimate updates from the committee as to who some of the candidates are. This is an unfortunate shame as students, faculty, alumni, and trustees should be in the loop in some capacity as to what is actually transpiring. Having people, including the student representative according to sources, sign NDAs is counterproductive to the transparency that the college wants to convey. We have platforms like the OneAnselm Canvas page that can be the perfect place for important updates, but instead it is just a place to post Hilltop Happenings which is honestly laughable when it comes to the potential of the platform. We as a community are owed a legitimate update on this search. Between the faculty who work for the College, the students that pay thousands of dollars a year to attend the college, and the alumni and trustees who contribute to the campus, we are owed something when it comes to this massive deal of a search. It is a simple ask that clearly is too tall of a task for the committee to give us meaningful information as to who they are looking at for candidates. Every time we have an opportunity to bring meaningful change, we choose to gatekeep what is truly going on. The community deserves transparency, and that starts with the search for a new President. Who are they looking at? What are they looking for in the position? We want to know. When this group was announced, many believed that this search was going to be very open to the community as things are typically ran on the Hilltop. However, we have gotten the exact opposite with this search. We deserve some respect when it comes to major moves like this one that is looming over the College. They asked for our opinion on what qualities we want but yet somehow they have chosen to stop there. The bottom line is that we should have some transparency when it comes to what is a major decision coming to the Hilltop as we are replacing someone who has made so many meanginful moves to put the College in the best spot for the future.