UI Interim President Hired State Board Of Education Chooses Provost Thomas Bell To Fill In For Zinser
The state Board of Education on Friday hired retired University of Idaho Provost Thomas Bell as interim president of the Moscow school during the search for a permanent successor to Elisabeth Zinser.
Members voted 7-0 to hire Bell at a salary of $120,000 per year during a special telephone conference meeting conducted from the board’s Boise office.
Board President Curtis Eaton of Twin Falls was authorized on Wednesday to negotiate salary and other terms with Bell, who retired last October after serving as the University of Idaho’s chief academic officer since 1991.
Of the $120,000 Bell will receive, the board said $105,000 will come from general state tax revenue. The remaining $15,000 will be “unrestricted non-appropriated university funds,” which board Executive Director Rayburn Barton said was money generated by investments and other auxiliary services.
The deal also includes use of the president’s home on the campus and a university car.
Zinser, who has been University of Idaho president for six years, will take over as chancellor of the University of Kentucky in mid-July.
Before he was provost, Bell, 64, was vice president for academic affairs and research at Idaho for seven years and dean of the College of Education for four years.
Other candidates considered for the interim presidency were current University of Idaho Provost John Yost, College of Education Dean Dale Gentry, Idaho Vice Provost George Simmons, outgoing College of Law Dean Sheldon Vincenti, and College of Mines Dean Robert Bartlett.
Eaton said on Wednesday that a committee to search for a permanent successor to Zinser should be put together next month so it could conduct its first meeting in July. He wants a new president ready to take over for the 1996-97 school year.
xxxx WHAT’S NEXT A committee to search for a permanent successor to Zinser should be put together next month so it could conduct its first meeting in July.