As many of you already know, the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees named former University of Alabama president Dr. Robert Witt as chancellor over the systems’ three universities.

Colleagues and members of the UA System’s board of trustees lauded Dr. Witt and his reign as president, citing substantial growth in enrollment and a heavy emphasis on marketing. During his tenure in this position, the University of Alabama became the most selective institution in the state, which now accepts just over 50 percent of applicants.

During the search for a new University president, the board of trustees needs to refocus its priorities from physical growth and development to mental growth and development, especially for women at the University.

We need a president who is going to work to ensure that women who graduate from the University are equally ambitious as the men beside them, which currently is not the case. And this is not just a problem at the University of Alabama. It’s an issue everywhere.

Women have represented the majority of college graduates in this country for almost 30 years now, and they still haven’t managed to clutch a substantial number of positions of power. This represents something wrong with the way institutions are educating women.

Women make up roughly 52 percent of the student body at the University; however, that reality is not represented in the highest positions in the Student Government Association. In fact, this past election cycle only one woman was elected to an executive position within student government, and that position was executive secretary, despite two other highly qualified women seeking positions within the organization.

This isn’t just an issue with the Machine, though. It is part of the culture here at the University of Alabama. The Blackburn Institute, which is traditionally lauded as a beacon for progress, hasn’t seen a woman hold the position of student chair in five years. That’s half of a decade where women have been absent from the most important discussions.

We need a University president who is going to see an end to this discrepancy between what should be and what is. We need a president who recognizes that talking about equality and equality are not the same thing.

In the text “Half the Sky,” Nichols Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn make the claim that the biggest moral challenge of the 19th century was slavery, the 20th century was totalitarianism, and this century is oppression of women. In order for the oppression of women to end during our lifetimes, we must see more involvement from women in positions of power providing a voice in those bigger discussions.

There is no reason the University of Alabama cannot be a shining example for institutions across the world for women equality, and now is the perfect time to capitalize on this opportunity.

We need to select a president that is dedicated to re-educating faculty, staff and students about the power and importance of strong, ambitious women. We need someone who is going to address this culture of inequality and cultivate a place where women and men don’t just talk about equality, but instead, live it.

Michael Patrick is a senior majoring in political science. His column runs weekly on Tuesday