Last week, Mary Ellen Miller announced her decision not to place her name on the ballot in next’s month faculty regent election. Miller has served faculty members well in her time as regent.

But, Miller’s finished.

It’s time for another faculty member to step up.

As of Wednesday morning, only one person had decided to put their name on the ballot. The deadline is Friday.

We understand why some of you would hesitate to rush into this commitment.

But someone has to. It is one of the top faculty positions on campus, and without a committed person like Miller in that job, faculty could lose out on a lot of tough issues.

Here are a few qualities we think the new regent should possess.

Guts. As one of only three elected members of the Board of Regents, it’s important for the new regent to be a voice for not only faculty, but everyone else on campus. Keep faculty at the top of your list, but remember that your decisions affect the entire university. Be an advocate for faculty, but remember everyone else at Western counts on your decisions.

Passion, definitely not the lusty kind, but the dedicated kind. As we said before, a regent has the ability to institute change. The regent needs to be energetic, not burned out on life or Western.

Time. They need to have time to do their own homework. We expect the new regent to do a lot of research about how issues may affect faculty and what impact decisions may have 20 years down the road.

Diversity. We’re not saying the new regent has to be a minority. But we feel the regent should have an understanding of diversity issues on campus, and the board should consider diversifying itself in terms of race, gender, age and ethnicity. There are a lot of different people here, and they all have different needs. The new regent needs to understand this.

Respect. It’s great to have a regent who isn’t afraid to walk into a room and state their case, but they’re only one person. The new regent should be someone who is respected in their department or college. We hope that respect carries over.

Those are just a few suggestions. We could name more. We could even nominate people we think would do a good job. But frankly, we’re afraid we might overlook a glowing candidate.

It’s up to faculty members to nominate someone.

Dietle said nominations can be made simply by calling, e-mailing or dropping him a note by Friday afternoon. One faculty member can nominate another, or if you think you’ve got what it takes, nominate yourself. His telephone number is 5731 or e-mail him at [email protected]

Good luck. We all need you.

This editorial represents the majority opinion of the Herald’s 11-member board of student editors.