The Idaho Senate Education Committee is considering a bill that would decrease the number of finalists that public state universities must name in presidential searches.
The proposed legislation creates a new exemption in the Public Records Act that would only require the names of three finalists for public four-year university president positions, rather than five.
For non-classified positions in state government, the Idaho Public Records Act requires the public disclosure of five finalists from the pool of applicants. If there are fewer than five applicants for a non-classified position, the law requires that all of them must be disclosed and named as finalists.
Non-classified positions include university administrators, teaching staff, employees of the court system and corrections department, or employees of constitutional officers like the governor or state treasurer.
The bill was presented to the committee last week by Mike Keckler, chief communications and legislative affairs officer for the State Board of Education.
“It is often difficult to come up with a list of five viable president finalists,” Keckler said. “The board has hired new presidents at each of our four-year institutions over the last year-and-a-half, so these challenges are fresh in our minds.”
Keckler said that the high number of finalists contributed to the State Board of Education’s difficulties in filling the president positions.
The University of Idaho’s presidential search last spring five candidates were brought to UI; Christopher Callahan, Diane Z. Chase, current President Scott Green, Elizabeth Spiller and Paul Tikalsky.
“During these most recent searches, we found that some candidates were reluctant to publicly be named as a finalist because they knew they were one of five candidates, and doing the math realized they probably had about a 20% chance of being named president,” Keckler said. “They feared that by being named publicly it would jeopardize their current employment. We encountered that with just about all of our searches.”
Keckler also told the committee that narrowing the number of finalists from five to three would mean fewer candidates for the universities to bring from across the country and host for open forums with campus and community members, thus lowering costs during the hiring process.
The bill clearly states that the smaller number of finalists only applies to university presidents and no other positions in state government.
Logan Finney can be reached at [email protected]