It is not normal for a university president to be so isolated the he has no control over what messages he sees or who he meets with (especially at a mid-sized university). I know Nancy gets a lot of grief for being imperious, but when I needed her help with something for SU I contacted her directly and she called me right away and got to work on it. In contrast, when my wife needed to speak with Kent about something even more important, she got no response for ages (and she had a close personal connection with him). Eventually the interim provost contacted her, but she never heard from Kent.
I'm sure part of it was that he didn't want to deal with this specific issue, but no response is not acceptable. And, as others have said, it's not okay for a chief executive to live in that much of a bubble.