Latest news with #BoardofHigherEducation
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Committee formed to search for new Utah State University president
The Utah Board of Higher Education announced Thursday a new committee of board members, trustees, faculty and students has been formed to select the next president of Utah State University. The new committee will be responsible for identifying potential candidates who will 'advance the university's unique mission as Utah's land- and space-grant institution, with a strong emphasis on student-centered education, research and community engagement,' according to a statement from the Utah System of Higher Education. They will also review applications and conduct interviews for the position before recommending their top three candidates to the Utah Board of Higher Education, which will select the new university president. The nine-person committee is co-chaired by Steve Neeleman, Board of Higher Education vice chairman, and David Huntsman, USU trustee. Board of Higher Education member Cydni Tetro and USU trustee Clark Whitworth also represent their boards as members of the search committee. Several members of the university's faculty were also named committee members, including Interim Dean and Faculty Senate President Grant Cardon, Senior Vice President for Marketing and Communications Bill Plate and Staff Association Vice President Elisa Taylor. 'This search committee brings together a broad cross-section of voices from the Utah State community,' said Neeleman in a statement. 'We're committed to finding a leader whose vision and values align with the spirit of Utah State and can champion its mission of learning, discovery and service for the success of all students who attend.' Matthew Richey, the 2024-25 USU student body president, joined the committee as a student representative, and Laurel Cannon Alder, former USU trustee and alumni association president, was selected as a voice for community members and university alumni. New higher education hiring amendments passed in the 2025 legislative session require that the search committee work in closed, confidential meetings to protect candidate privacy and potentially entice a more competitive pool of candidates in the hiring process. After the committee submits its top candidates, the Board of Higher Education will be required to make the final candidate selection in an open and public meeting. 'I am honored to serve the Aggie community in this capacity,' Huntsman said. 'This is a critical time for Utah State, and we are committed to finding the best person to lead USU and position the university to meet both the challenges and opportunities of the future.' The Presidential Search Committee plans to work with national executive search firm AGB Search to approve a position announcement seeking nominees and applicants in the coming weeks. Former USU President Elizabeth Cantwell resigned and announced her new position as president of Washington State University in February. Alan L. Smith was named as the university's interim president shortly after and plans to return to his position as dean of the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services when the new president is selected. Updates on the search and community engagement opportunities will be uploaded to the Presidential Search Committee webpage as they become available. Students and community members can share suggestions or feedback about the search by emailing the committee or submitting an anonymous comment on the Utah System of Higher Education website.
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The search for new university presidents may become secret in Utah
Utah State University's Old Main is pictured on Oct. 8, 2024. (Photo by Kelly Winter for Utah News Dispatch) Should top candidates in the search for university presidents be kept from the public eye? A bill advancing in the Utah Legislature says yes. Currently, a search committee tasked with selecting finalists to lead the state's higher education institutions makes public a short list of three to five candidates for the Board of Higher Education's consideration. Up until that point, the process is confidential. But, with SB282, Senate Majority Whip Chris Wilson, R-Logan, would like to change to be a more secretive process in which only the top candidate would be made public, after a selection has been made. The goal, he said, is to avoid repercussions for the candidates that aren't selected and potentially expand the pool of applicants. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX 'Job applicants should have privacy throughout the hiring process, ensuring their personal information and application materials are handled with confidentiality,' Wilson told the House Education Committee on Friday. 'This is especially important if an applicant is not selected for the position, as they should not face unnecessary disclosure or discussion of their personal data.' The bill had a smooth path in the Senate, passing almost unanimously every time it was put up to a vote. Now, after the House Education Committee voted unanimously to recommend the bill, it advances to the House floor for its consideration. Transparency is essential to the state and government, Wilson said. But, he described the timing of sharing information as 'equally vital.' By protecting candidates' privacy, the state would ensure highly qualified individuals aren't discouraged from applying, he said. The Board of Higher Education has taken a neutral position on the bill, Commissioner of Higher Education Geoff Landward said in a February Senate Education Committee hearing. 'I can confidently say that we have not had a single search wherein we were talking to very high quality candidates who essentially said that they would be interested and willing to apply, were it not for the fact that the final three candidates would have to be public,' he said, 'because that would put their current employment in peril unnecessarily.' The Utah Media Coalition disputes the claim that Utah hasn't been attracting the top-tier candidates to the candidate pool, citing an article from the American Association of University Professors which attributes short-lived presidencies to 'inadequate searches.' Jeff Hunt, an attorney with Parr Brown Gee & Loveless speaking on behalf of the Utah Media Coalition, of which Utah News Dispatch is a member, said that his main concerns about the bill include the elimination of public scrutiny of the finalists. 'I understand there are stakeholders on the search committee, but the most important stakeholder is the public,' Hunt said. 'This current model allows the public to weigh in with information that the search committee may have overlooked.' But, the bill has bipartisan support, Wilson said. A demonstration that a change is needed, he argued, is in the last presidential search of Utah State University, which he described as 'a failure.' 'I think a lot of that was because of the public,' he told the committee. 'We did not have the candidate pool we should have had with sitting current presidents that would apply for that position.' USU President Elizabeth Cantwell resigned early February after a two-year embattled tenure, according to The Salt Lake Tribune, to assume the presidency of Washington State University next April. This prompted a new search that, if SB282 passes, would become confidential. 'It is likely we would see more candidates apply as a result of the changes,' Landward said in a statement about the process. 'We'd also likely attract candidates in higher-level positions who previously hesitated to apply for similar roles.' Joel Campbell, an associate professor in communication studies at Brigham Young University — a private school that wouldn't be affected by the legislation — said a bill like this wouldn't benefit the public, but would boost firms that specialize in presidential searches. The process of posting three top candidates was a compromise established in the '90s, following a search for a University of Utah leader that was particularly murky as a board met behind closed doors to appoint Bernard Machen as president. Other states have even more transparency requirements in place, holding public interviews throughout the whole process. 'Looking at the history of this will show that we've come to a compromise. We went too far, (with) secrecy the other way,' Campbell said. 'I vehemently disagree that we are not getting good candidates, from both my academic perspective and from an open government perspective.' Ultimately, there are some factors that should be discussed in a public forum in a state like Utah, he said, including whether there's enough attention to candidates who are women, of diverse religious affiliations, or other diverse backgrounds. 'I think that one of the goals of transparency is, you get people involved in the process. So if you have an open forum with these finalists, and people know who they are, and they get to know them, I think you're going to have a better process and more people involved,' Campbell said. Contributing: Katie McKellar SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
