Candidates interviewed for UT president
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Sixteen questions await the 10 candidates hoping to become the next president of the University of Tennessee.
The queries range from “articulating a vision” for the university to fund-raising, from promoting unity within a five-campus system to describing the “role of a system president in relation to students.”
An 18-member search advisory council of trustees, faculty, staff, students and alumni will be weighing the answers in a series of interviews beginning Tuesday.
The panel will narrow the field to four to six finalists on Thursday. Two more rounds of interviews will lead to the selection of the 23rd president of the 42,000-student Tennessee system on April 21.
Five candidates, including Utah State President Kermit Hall and UT-Chattanooga Chancellor Bill Stacy, were to interview Tuesday.
Two of an original 12 selected candidates dropped out Monday.
Dr. Thomas C. Meredith, chancellor of the University of Georgia system, and Dr. William Evans, scientific director of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, both said they want to stay put.
“We still have a very strong pool of candidates and look forward to the interviews,” said Margaret Perry, executive director of the Tennessee search.
Meredith’s decision came after the Georgia Board of Regents paid him $180,000 in supplementary pay that he was supposed to receive last year, for a total annual compensation package of $480,450.
“I am grateful for the show of support … and am therefore withdrawing my name from the search for the president of the University of Tennessee,” he said in a statement.
State Senate Education Chairman Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, worried about extravagant spending on Meredith’s university residence in Georgia and his relationship with Tennessee’s Atlanta-based presidential search consultant, Baker-Parker.
“Can’t say I’m glad he’s out, but that takes care of that question,” McNally said after Meredith’s withdrawal. “There’s still some very good candidates in there.”
Evans, 53, said he didn’t want to leave his personal research involving childhood leukemia and ongoing plans for new scientific programs at St. Jude, where he has worked for 25 years.
“My view is that probably at the end of the day I can probably do more good for the state of Tennessee if I stay put with what we are trying to do here at St. Jude,” he said in a telephone interview.
Evans said his decision “also reflected the fact that there are other outstanding candidates on the list who can do a terrific job as the next president of the University of Tennessee.”
Gov. Phil Bredesen, speaking Monday night in Nashville, said he hadn’t heard of any issues concerning Meredith — but said they proved the process is working.
“Part of the reason I though the open process was so important is because you get scrubbed,” he said. “It’s like running for office, where anything like that is likely to come out ahead of time.”
Tennessee President John Shumaker resigned in August over disclosures of lavish spending. His predecessor, J. Wade Gilley, resigned in 2001 citing health and personal concerns amid allegations of a relationship with a subordinate.
Because of that legacy, the university has embarked on an unusually open search process to find its next leader. All candidates have been publicly identified and interviews will be open and Webcast.
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To read biographical summaries of each of the candidates, visit http://pr.tennessee.edu/presidentialsearch