WSU Presidency Pool Narrowed

Sat., Jan. 15, 2000

By Andrea Vogt andreav@spokesman.com

Washington State University’s board of regents is interviewing and evaluating a short list of candidates for the school’s presidency.

“We have started dialogue … both by phone and in person,” Board of Regents President Peter Goldmark said during a break Friday in the monthly regents meeting in Pullman.

“But the board has not yet formulated who the finalists are.”

Goldmark, who is chairman of the search for a new president, confirmed that regents have begun meeting in-state with the narrowed pool of up to five candidates. The regents met in closed session Wednesday in Seattle at the Westin Hotel to evaluate candidates.

“The quality of the pool which has been delivered by the search committee has been outstanding,” Goldmark told media and university officials Friday.

The candidates include senior administrators, current university presidents and provosts, Goldmark said, adding both men and women are in the running. He said there are no candidates from the corporate sector.

Goldmark said the list could stay the same or be narrowed again before finalists are chosen in February. He said his intent is to make those names public and bring the candidates to Pullman to meet constituency groups at that time.

But Goldmark refused to guarantee such a public process, leaving open the possibility that his fellow regents may decide to keep the list under wraps to protect candidates’ job security in their current positions.

“Some of the people are sitting presidents and sitting presidents cannot have their names made public and that’s an issue the board has to grapple with.”

Faculty, students and community members are growing increasingly nervous about the possibility that WSU’s future president could be hired without ever going through a public evaluation process in Pullman.

“That would anger me, very much so, because that’s not what we’ve been promised,” student body President Steve Wymer said.

President Sam Smith announced last July that he plans to retire at the end of this year.

This sidebar appeared with the story:

WHAT IT COSTS

Background checks

Ford Webb Associates, the professional search firm hired to manage the search, will be spearheading background checks on each of the candidates, Goldmark said.

WSU expects the search will cost $200,000-$250,000. To date, $101,130 has been spent, with $50,555 going to consultant fees, $41,400 toward travel and $9,175 for operating expenses.

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