Students reflect on Chancellor Brehm's resignation

Don''t tell junior Patrick Knudsen the IU-Bloomington chancellor''s resignation is important to students. He doesn''t even know who she is.\n"It''s just so big of a school," Knudsen said. "How can she have that much power?"\nChancellor Sharon Brehm gave her resignation Wednesday to accept the position of senior adviser to IU President Adam Herbert.\nUnlike Knudsen, a number of students and campus organizations have been directly impacted by Brehm, particularly those that pushed for diversity-oriented measures and important campus changes.\nBut students and student officials said they don''t think Brehm''s absence from the position will affect them much after receiving the announcement Thursday in an e-mail from Herbert.\nInterfraternity Council President Evan Waldman said the chancellor most directly affected his group when discussing campus alcohol matters.\n"When we discussed alcohol policy and the means that we were going to go about adhering to those policies, she was really supportive of our peer pressure method," he said.\nOther groups, such as the IU Student Association, were also on the receiving end of Brehm''s cooperative relations with students.\nIU Student Association president Casey Cox said Brehm played an integral role in the Midnight Special initiative, a late night bus service developed to get IU students home safely. Cox recalled when IUSA was concerned the plans would never blossom, and Brehm dropped everything, picked up the phone and made sure the student organization''s needs were met.\n"She was very open and accommodating to us," Cox said. "She did a lot to make herself more accessible to students."\nMany consider two of Brehm''s most involved campus issues to be those of the Benton Murals in Woodburn Hall and the One for Diversity fund-raiser. \nBlack Student Union President Crystal Brown said she didn''t know how Brehm''s diversity initiatives would continue when she first heard the announcement. \nBrown said Brehm had much to do with campus education of the murals, including the One for Diversity fund. The campaign is geared toward the investment and placement of multicultural artwork throughout campus.\nBrown said the BSU will be able to work with the chancellor''s successor.\n"We''re confident that the University will still perform at the same level with Chancellor Brehm being gone," Brown said. "We will make it our duty to make sure our initiatives will continue. The administration has been very responsive. There shouldn''t be any problems at all."\nOther students on campus, who suggested they had little knowledge of her impact on campus, reacted indifferently to Brehm''s resignation.\nFreshman Catie Eggert said she skimmed the e-mail, noting her lack of awareness concerning Brehm''s activities.\n"I didn''t think that much of it," Eggert said. "I think it''s kind of cool the e-mail was sent out to, what, 40,000 people? But I didn''t really think that much of it. I don''t personally have any idea about what she does."\nCox said the chancellor''s resignation coupled with Herbert''s aspirations for the Bloomington campus will prove to be the best thing for all in the end.\n"I''ve met with the president a few times and trust his leadership and vision are the right way to go," Cox said. "And the campus will adapt accordingly."\nWaldman also expressed an optimistic outlook after having predicted the most recent events.\n"For three weeks now, I''ve foreseen this looming on the horizon, through just either speaking with or hearing what Herbert has to say and reading between the lines."\n"It''s just refreshing to see Dr. Herbert as a man with a plan," Waldman said. "Go, Dr. H."\n-Contact staff writer Jackie Corgan at jcorgan@indiana.edu.