Students Wary of Chapman Head : Survey: Seventy-five percent of those polled at college say they have no confidence in President Allen E. Koenig.

In the first survey of its kind at Chapman College, 75% of the students polled say they have no confidence in President Allen E. Koenig, and more than two-thirds say they do not have enough impact on the administration of the Christian liberal arts school.

The survey results released Tuesday also show that 68.5% of students who responded had no confidence in Koenig’s controversial five-year strategic plan first presented about two months ago, and since replaced by a faculty plan. The same percentage of students indicated that there is not enough communication between the students and campus administration.

The survey was conducted April 8 and 9 as part of the student government elections. Turnout was three times greater than normal balloting for a campus election. And since it came after an alternative faculty plan was accepted by the president, the survey results were widely seen as a lingering sign of antipathy toward Koenig, who became president in the fall of 1989, as well as his policies.

“There is a perceived attitude that some campus administrators, particularly Koenig, are not interested in student concerns,” said senior Sherman Wiggs Jr., 30, editor of the Panther, the college’s weekly student newspaper. “They (administrators) think of the college as more of a business than an educational facility.”

The Koenig plan would have reduced faculty 20%, shifted college resources away from the traditional arts and sciences and expanded specialized training centers. Faculty protested that the plan turned from the basic mission of the college. Students also organized a protest rally that was averted when Koenig and some members of the Board of Trustees met with them and agreed to listen to their concerns.

Koenig could not be reached for comment on the survey late Tuesday. However, college spokeswoman Angela DeCarlo downplayed it, saying that the vote represented only about 20% of the campus’s 2,200 students.

But Todd Adams, chairman of the election board, said the 457 who cast ballots actually represent 31% of the 1,465 students eligible to vote. He and others said the usual turnout for a campus election is about 10% of the eligible students.

“That says to me that President Koenig’s performance in office is probably the single most important issue the students have thought about in the four years I’ve been here,” said Robert Crane, a senior who headed a student task force to force revisions in Koenig’s five-year plan. “It says how seriously students think Koenig could affect the future of Chapman.”

Crane, 22, one of Koenig’s more outspoken student critics, said the Chapman president is “bad for the college because he shoots from the hip. . . .”

“He has a habit of announcing his policies before they have been completely thought through. He acts without substantial input from various sections of the college,” Crane said. “The strategic plan is a fantastic example of that. I read about it in the newspaper.”

He predicted that the survey results would have little impact on Koenig. “I really doubt that he will take it very seriously,” he said. “But I hope the Board of Trustees will . . . and perhaps reassess their decision about who should be president of Chapman College. . . . I think he was an experiment that has failed and we need to move on.”

Adams, 19, said he hopes that administrators will be more willing to work with the students. “We all have a common purpose,” he said. “That is to make Chapman the best there is.”