Bobby Lowder, Board of Trustees member for 28 years, asked to be removed from consideration for reappointment to the Board May 16.
This came after a storm of controversy rained down on Gov. Robert Bentley and the selection committee for the lack of openness to the short, 10-day selection process.
A lawsuit was filed against the committee after the first round of nominations for allegedly violating the state's open meeting laws.
Andy Hornsby, former president of Auburn's national alumni association, filed the suit in Lee County Circuit Court in an attempt to have the committee's actions invalidated.
It's hard to believe that the panel had to be sued to take notice of its wrongdoings. This is a sad indication of how common corruption is in politics.
Bentley called a special meeting of the selection committee, and when the group met in the early morning hours Wednesday, he said the actions taken last month were rushed and needed to be slowed down.
The governor repeatedly stressed the need for transparency in the selection of Board members.
This is ironic, especially coming from the man who presided over the original selections, now blocked by the Senate.
While Bentley's intentions this time around may be sincere, his profuse need to use the term "transparency" at every turn makes us believe he is backpedaling hard.
We're not going to applaud you for adhering to the rules you should have been following all along.
This "sincere" act you are putting on seems like a charade to save face, and we're not falling for it.
As a public institution, the selection process should have always been "transparent" and the committee not interviewing top candidates is absolutely inexcusable.
A 30-day period, not 10, is required for the selection committee members to review the candidates and make selections.
The rules of the selection process were set long before Bentley took office, as were the state divisions for seats.
District lines are redrawn after each census to reflect the changing population.
These new lines should also be applied to the Board of Trustees, and yet the same district lines have been used for the past 40 years.
If new district lines were applied, more at-large seats would be available as well.
It is incredulous that an Auburn alum who is the assumed heir to the Apple Inc. computer empire was not selected for an at-large seat.
Who is more qualified and respected in the business world than this man?
The biggest mistake the governor made was to reappoint Lowder for another term.
Lowder has been a lightning rod for controversy for years and a blemish on our school's reputation.
Many students, including most in this office, breathed a collective sigh of relief when the news broke of Lowder's resignation.
All we ask is that the leaders like Bentley follow the rules, like the rest of us average citizens.
In Wednesday's meeting, Bentley said everyone makes mistakes and we should learn from them.
We hope he learned this University will not stand idly by as he haphazardly throws together a governing board for us.
We deserve more consideration than 10 days of revision and appointments based on personal preference instead of qualified, interviewed candidates.
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