Dr. Sharon Hahs, the first of two candidates being considered to replace outgoing President Salme Steinberg, visited all of Northeastern’s campuses to meet with groups of faculty, administrators and union officials. A public meeting was held last Thursday in the auditorium.

Hahs is currently director of special projects and former provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE), and started in academics as a chemistry teacher.

Hahs talked in her opening statement about funding, student retention and graduation. She said that fundraising is “part of a larger puzzle” of university advancement, as is “friendship” and keeping relationships with alumni.

One of Hahs’ main themes in her talk was the value in collaborative effort, saying “collectively, we’re better off” and “We seldom innovate as a single person in a room.” She said that people often have “different kinds of intelligences” which enable different perspectives to be brought out.

After Hahs’ opening statement, she took questions from the audience which touched on many subjects

The audience questioned Hahs about many issues which have come up recently on campus, such as last year’s faculty strike, the university’s designation as a Hispanic-serving institution, and graduation rates, an issue which