Open pres. searches under scrutiny

Public, private universitiesPublic, private universitiesdebate the pros and cons ofPublic, private universitiesdebate the pros and cons ofopen v. closed searches forPublic, private universitiesdebate the pros and cons ofopen v. closed searches fornew campus administrators and Mark Fiore The University of Michigan's public presidential search process -- which is considering Provost Stanley Chodorow for the school's top post -- is not unusual for state universities. But most private schools conduct their presidential searches behind closed doors. When the Board of Trustees selected then-Yale Provost Judith Rodin as Penn's president in 1993, the presidential search committee met entirely in private. However, Michigan cannot by law conduct a presidential search process secretly, according to the state's Open Meetings Act. Local Detroit newspapers filed a lawsuit against Michigan when the university's Board of Regents held closed search meetings earlier this month. A Circuit Court judge ruled that any planned closed meetings were illegal. Dartmouth College Provost Lee Bollinger, University of California at Berkeley Provost and Vice Chancellor Carol Christ, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Provost and Vice Chancellor Larry Faulkner and Chodorow are the four finalists for the Michigan presidency. Each of the candidates are being interviewed publicly by the Regents and must attend a town meeting where the Michigan community can pose questions. Chodorow, Bollinger and Christ were on campus for their interviews during the past week. Faulkner will visit Michigan Monday. The Regents can add another candidate to the search at any time. While student leaders said they are pleased to be part of the process, they voiced concern that the open format may intimidate applicants' from continuing with the process. "What if we don't get quality candidates because of this," Michigan Student Assembly representative Dan Serota said of the open process. Originally, Michigan's presidential search advisory committee nominated five finalists for the presidency. But once the state Circuit Court ordered meetings to be opened to the public, one of the finalists withdrew. Despite the open process, only the eight-member Board of Regents will make the final decision. Michigan spokesperson Lisa Baker said she thinks the process is restrictive since Regents are not able to meet with the candidates privately. "The Regents are not in a position to consult with each other," Baker said. "That is problematic for the board." Although an open presidential process allows for greater community input, University President Judith Rodin said a public search has inherent weaknesses. "It allows for more information about the candidates than some may feel is appropriate," Rodin said. She added that candidates often are concerned about how an open search process could affect their home institutions. During Penn's 1993 presidential search, a committee narrowed the pool of applicants to three and presented their list of nominees to the Trustees Executive Committee. The Executive Committee then interviewed the candidates in private and presented a recommendation to the full Board of Trustees. Other private universities have followed similar secretive presidential searches. Both Columbia University and Yale University conducted extensive private presidential searches in 1993. "We spoke to an enormous number of faculty, student groups, all of the deans, the senior staff and local political figures," said Henry King, chairperson of Columbia University's Board of Trustees at the time of the search. But King also said the process of allowing all campus groups to have input on the selection can be extremely time consuming. There was one student on the presidential search committee for Columbia. Students, faculty and staff were represented on Penn's Presidential Search Committee as well, according to Rodin. Several public universities have open presidential searches similar to Michigan's. And other public universities have struggled with the open process. Officials at the University of Colorado state system realized the difficulty of conducting a public search when they looked for a new president in the early 1990s. According to Colorado spokesperson Bronson Hilliard, the lack of privacy in the open process drove them to cancel their search. "The national search had quite a number of flaws," he said. "It became very difficult to keep confidential who the finalists were. The candidates felt very uncomfortable and the whole process was scrapped." Following the failed search, the university's Board of Regents passed a regulation that requires the four institutions in the Colorado system to conduct internal searches for all top administrators before looking outside of the system. In the meantime, the school appointed Colorado Vice President Judith Albino as president. When Albino stepped down last year, the school conducted its first internal search for a president and appointed then-Interim President John Buechner to the top post. Hilliard said the internal search was open, adding that public meetings were held to allow members of the community to address Buechner before his official appointment. The difficulties with an open process led officials at the University of Pittsburgh to make their search process more private, according to spokesperson Ken Service. Service said when the school conducted its search for a new chancellor, all but one meeting was held in private. "The committee invited anyone to come and talk about what they thought was important in choosing a candidate," said Service, adding that there was no direct interaction between candidates and the public. "We felt that conducting the process in public would discourage people from applying," Service said. But officials from several universities said their public searches have run much smoother. When the president of the University of Southern Mississippi retired two years ago after serving for more than 20 years, the school began a nationwide search for a replacement -- something they had little previous experience at doing. "We hadn't conducted a search for many years," said head librarian Nancy Kaul. "It took a good bit of discussion to come to a plan." Kaul, former chairperson of the school's Faculty Senate and the presidential search committee's chairperson, said the search they devised was "very similar to Michigan's process." According to Kaul, once Southern Mississippi's search committee and the Board of Trustees had chosen four finalists, their names were released to the public, their vitae were put on the school's World Wide Web page, and they were invited to campus for open meetings. At the meetings -- which Kaul said were attended by members of the university and outside communities -- anyone could provide the Trustees with written opinions on the candidates. The Board took those opinions into consideration when it made its final decision, she added. "We wanted as much feedback as possible," Kaul said. "We collected hundreds of those and used them as a general guide." At Pittsburgh State University in Pittsburgh, Kan., public input played an important role in its national search for a new president last year. After an open selection process, the school chose John Darling from more than 80 applicants. According to Pittsburgh State spokesperson Ellen Carter, the university's search committee -- of which she was a member -- selected three finalists who were then invited to the campus for public meetings. Similar to Southern Mississippi's process, members of the public could submit forms expressing their opinions, which the acting president presented in summary to the Board of Regents before it made its final decision. Carter said both open and closed search processes have their positive and negative aspects. She noted that public searches often discourage individuals from applying because they do not want their current institutions to know that they are looking for a new position. "I understand the tug both ways," she said. "I understand the need for privacy. Yet you should be ready for your name to be public when you're one of three finalists." Officials from Northwestern State University in Louisiana have also conducted open searches without much difficulty, although they are now evaluating how they will handle an upcoming search process. Northwestern State President Randall Webb said when he was selected as Northwestern State's president last spring, he informally met with the public several times. "There was a reception open to the public," Webb said. "And also the Board of Regents got suggestions from the community in terms of qualifications and the future direction of the university." Northwestern State officials have just begun a search for a new provost, and they are still discussing how public the process will be, he said. However, Webb added that the process will not be a closed one like Penn's. "We don't do things that way," he said.