Questions to get harder in search for UT president
KNOXVILLE (AP) — The questions are expected to get harder as the field of candidates narrows in the University of Tennessee’s unusually open search for its next president.
The first round of interviews with nine hopefuls was to be completed Thursday with an appearance by Kenneth Olden, 65, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, N.C.
A Tennessee native and the only minority candidate, Olden hopes to lead a university he couldn’t attend in the 1950s because of his race.
Two university presidents and ranking officials from campuses or university systems in Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Missouri and Illinois are in the running along with Tennesseans.
An 18-member search advisory council of trustees, faculty, staff, students and alumni were to pare the list to four to six candidates Thursday.
The survivors will interview before a presidential search committee on Tuesday. Three finalists will go before the full Board of Trustees the following day and the new president chosen.
“The pool of candidates that we have looked at the last few days have shown us that the process does in fact work,” said attorney Roger Dickson, a member of the search advisory council. “Hopefully, it will be a model for some other institutions.”
“I think it will, and I congratulate you,” said candidate John Petersen, provost and executive vice president at the University of Connecticut.
“Whoever emerges from this search will actually be far better off … because they will emerge as a consensus person that people will know more about.”
The university adopted a very public search for the 23rd president in the 210-year history of the five-campus, 42,000-student system after scandals tainted the two previous administrations. Lavish spending forced the resignation of John Shumaker in August and J. Wade Gilley left in 2001 amid allegations of a relationship with a subordinate.
Background checks, resume reviews and visits to candidates’ home campuses were conducted. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation was expected to give an official “all-clear” report on the remaining candidates Thursday.
During the first round of interviews, 16 identical and carefully worded questions have been asked of each candidate, covering broad topics — from creating a “vision” for the university to relations between campuses, faculty, students, donors and the Legislature.
“We made a decision that we were going to ask the same questions and we were going put them out there and give them to all the candidates in advance,” said trustee Jim Murphy, chairman of the search council.
“One of the controversies in the past (searches) was some people said they had the questions (in advance) and some didn’t. This time everybody had them so it is a level playing field.”
Trustee Andrea Loughry, chairwoman of the presidential search committee, said she expects “more probing” questions during the second round of interviews by her committee next week.
“There are going to be some of the same core questions but then they will be more individualized depending upon that person’s background,” she said. “One of the reasons for doing (the search) in this many different parts is so we can go into that kind of depth.”
From 47 applicants, a dozen candidates were invited to interview. Two dropped out saying they wanted to remain in their current jobs. A third candidate, the only woman in the Tennessee pool, withdrew Wednesday.
Karen Hitchcock said she wanted to “focus my attention on a number of other opportunities that are more closely aligned with my professional background and interests.” Hitchcock stepped down as president of State University of New York at Albany last fall after failing to land the University of Florida presidency.
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To read biographical summaries of each of the candidates, visit http://pr.tennessee.edu/presidentialsearch