On Friday the Board of Trustees approved a new contract for Eastern President David Glassman. 

According to Laura McLaughlin, Eastern’s general counsel, the contract has yet to be written even though the board approved a two-year renewal of Glassman’s contract, a 10 percent market-based salary increase and included an annual executive physical with all other terms remaining the same from his current five-year contract. 

The board approved Glassman’s renewed contract without seeing the new contract ahead of time and seeing it in its entirety.  

McLaughlin said the completed contract would likely be done in a few weeks with no set time for it to be written by. 

We at The Daily Eastern News believe that the contract should have been written and available prior to the board voting on the renewal. 

The board should have waited to vote on the contract and made sure it was completed before it took the steps to approve it. 

We believe having the contract readily available for all of those at Eastern to view is essential to remaining transparent. 

While the original contract can be requested via the Freedom of Information Act and the board’s agenda included the updates, the Eastern community deserves to be able to view and see the proposed contract of the university’s leader before it is voted on. 

To be frank, it just makes sense for the board among other regulatory bodies to have and be able to view things they are voting on before they cast their votes. 

We hope this vote on Glassman’s contract will not set any poor precedents for other voting bodies on campus. 

During the meeting, increased housing rates were tabled until the April meeting so the board could have all available information on other fees before their vote. 

Glassman’s new contract should have been tabled as it currently does not exist in writing; it just included changes to an original document.  

The board should be voting on things that currently exist rather than contracts that will not be completed until weeks after a vote has already been made.

The Editorial Staff can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].