A front-page story in yesterday’s paper offered insight to how the June 6 review of President Lester Lefton was conducted. We appreciate that the Board of Trustees brought in an outside evaluator this year. That was a great stride, and we think it made the process a bit more transparent.

But, the story also showed that the board’s summary of the Aldridge Group’s evaluation did not include the negative feedback about the president that the group originally presented. Furthermore, the story showed that the president had involvement in how his evaluation was conducted.

Our confusion lies in what went undisclosed.

The board’s summary should have included the group’s critical feedback. We would not have thought less of the president if those full criticisms had been included in the board’s summary. In fact, it may have humanized a man with whom students cannot regularly interact. People are not perfect, nor do we expect Lefton to be.

We know the president has done great things with the university. Fall 2011 welcomed the largest freshman class in university history. Lefton has also raised millions of dollars for our school. And the sweeping improvements both on campus and in the city will undoubtedly make Kent an even better place to be.

So why not play it straight? Bringing in an outside evaluator was an opportunity to clear up questions about how the evaluation has been handled before. We were only looking for full disclosure. We think it’s what the students, faculty and staff deserve.

The above editorial is the consensus

opinion of the Daily Kent Stater editorial

board.