After scandals, UT goes public in search for president
KNOXVILLE (AP) — No backroom deals. No insider candidates. The University of Tennessee is bringing the search for its 23rd president out in the open.
After uncloaked secrets forced out the last two presidents, Tennessee’s flagship university is lifting the veil on every part of the process of looking for its next leader.
An Internet site was set up to list every candidate being considered, finalists must submit to a series of interviews that will be open and Webcast to all, and even the search panel’s deliberations and votes will take place in public view.
“I would venture to say it is probably the most public search that has ever been done in higher education,” said consultant Gary Daugherty of Atlanta, whose role has been more as a search adviser than as a shadowy headhunter.
The process came in response to the downfall of a president who had been wooed to the job in secret by a consultant. President John Shumaker resigned in August when his penchant for lavish living at the university’s expense was exposed after 14 months on the job.
His predecessor, J. Wade Gilley, was hired from a slate of identified candidates. But he lasted only 22 months, quitting in 2001 citing poor health and personal concerns after the release of e-mails suggested an affair with a subordinate.
In launching its new process, Tennessee went directly to the people with meetings around the state seeking consensus on the qualities needed in the next president. “Personal and professional integrity,” “effective stewardship of university resources” and a love of the five-campus, 42,000-student land-grant institution rated highly.
An early decision was made to disclose every step of the search on a UT Web site — listing everyone interested in the post, which will pay $400,000 to $500,000, plus the use of a mansion and a car.
Monday, an 18-member Presidential Search Advisory Council of trustees, alumni, faculty, students and staff will meet publicly with Daugherty in Nashville to narrow an expected 40 hopefuls down to six to 10 candidates.
Those candidates will submit to three sets of open interviews over 16 days. Finally, on April 21, the full 24-member UT Board of Trustees will vote on the new president.
Along the way, resumes will be double-checked, references called and visits paid to the candidates’ work sites. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is lending its resources.
“I wanted to make it an open process,” said Gov. Phil Bredesen, who chairs the UT trustee board. “I like it. We’ve got some good candidates.”
But some believe the university has gone overboard and may have scared off candidates who didn’t want to be known as job seekers — particularly presidents of other universities.
“This excessive openness seems to be a massive overreaction due to the difficulties that UT has experienced with the prior two incumbents,” said Sheldon Steinbach, general counsel at the American Council on Education, a higher education advocacy group in Washington.
“Let us be realistic about what we know in this world — some of the best individuals who could be considered for the presidency of Tennessee are not likely to want to subject themselves to this public circus,” he said.
Activist lawyer George Barrett recently wrote the state attorney general suggesting the process is a “mere sham” to ramrod through candidate Bill Madia, former director of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
“There is not a hidden agenda or a candidate that has already been picked,” insisted UT trustee Jim Murphy, a Nashville lawyer who chairs the Search Advisory Council. “Part of our job is to assure people that there is not a done deal, there is a truly open fair process to pick the best candidate.”
Murphy pointed to the example of the University of Florida, which recently hired a president in a search that exposed candidates to public scrutiny for several days.
While that search doesn’t quite measure up to the Tennessee’s nearly three-week public process, Murphy hopes for the same result as Florida’s: four or five quality finalists.
Charles Knapp, a former University of Georgia president and now a search consultant not involved in the UT search, said that given what happened with Shumaker and Gilley “there is justifiably enormous interest in having this be a public process where the candidates can really be vetted and you can see how they stand up in public.”
The scrutiny may have kept some people out of the field, but “I am sure given the attractiveness of the UT position they are going to get some very, very strong candidates,” said Knapp, who was among those nominated for the job but declined.
Peter Magrath, president of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges in Washington, said he knows closed searches can work and believes open records laws in other states may prevent UT’s example from becoming a trend.
However, Magrath said, “I understand why it is being done this way (at Tennessee) given the last two presidents. It is a no-brainer. Without being silly about it — three strikes and you are out. I don’t necessarily think that is totally true, but UT needs to come out very well on this.”
Candidates for president of the University of Tennessee
— Confirmed candidates for University of Tennessee president, as of Satuday, April 3.
— Dr. Dan Angel, president, Marshall University
— Dr. Jerry W. Askew, senior vice president for advancement and community development, St. Mary’s Health System, Knoxville
— Dr. Gary M. Bell, associate vice provost and honors dean, Texas Tech University
— Dr. Shelby T. Brewer, Commodore Applied Technologies Inc., Virginia
— Dr. Jack Burns, vice president for academic affairs and research, University of Colorado system
— Dr. James L. Byford, agriculture and applied sciences dean, UT-Martin
— Alan L. Cates, attorney, Chattanooga
— Lt. Gen. Dennis D. Cavin, commanding general, U.S. Army Accessions Command
— Dr. Ghulam Choudhry, president, GET R&D Laboratories Inc., British Columbia
— Dr. Ronald B. Cox, holder of Burkett Miller chair of excellence in management and technology, UT-Chattanooga
— Dr. Robert H. Darville III, holder of Sewell chair of business ethics, Shorter College
— Dr. Brady Deaton, vice chancellor for academic affairs, University Missouri-Columbia
— Dr. Marshall E. Drummond, chancellor, California Community College System
— Dr. Rose Duhon-Sells, education dean, Southern University
— Dr. George H. Emert, president emeritus, Utah State University
— Dr. William E. Evans, scientific director and executive vice president, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
— Dr. Ted W. Farcasin, business professional, Knoxville
— Dr. James Farris, Vice President, Medical Education, Baptist Hospital, Nashville
— Craig Fitzhugh, president and CEO, Bank of Ripley and Member, Tennessee House of Representatives
— Tom Galligan, Jr., dean, The University of Tennessee College of Law
— Dr. Jose-Marie Griffiths, professor, School of Informational Sciences, University of Pittsburgh
— James E. Hall, transportation safety, Hall and Associates
— Dr. Kermit Hall, president and professor of history, Utah State University
— Dr. Kenneth E. Harwell, director of defense laboratories programs, Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense
— Dr. Barbara S. Haskew, interim director, Tennessee Center for Labor Management Relations
— Dr. Karen Hitchcock, president, State University of New York at Albany
— Dr. Lisa K. Jennings, director, vascular biology center of excellence, UT Health Science Center, Memphis
— Dr. Marcia Katz, P.E.
— Reed A. Keller, president, Enterprise Solutions
— Dr. Ronald H. Kirkland, physician, Jackson, Tenn.
— Dr. Art Koblasz, president, BedderCare Inc.
— Joseph Lambert, Russellville, Tenn.
— Dr. Pui-Man P. Low, VA Great Lakes Health Care Network, Chicago
— Dr. William J. Madia, executive vice president for laboratory operations, Battelle Memorial Institute
— Dr. Kimball I. Maull, chair of surgical education, Carraway Methodist Medical Center; and senior scientist, Injury Control Research Center, University of Alabama-Birmingham
— Dr. Gary M. McCown, dentist, Knoxville
— Dr. Michael McDonald, Tennessee House of Representatives
— Dr. Thomas Meredith, chancellor, University System of Georgia
— Dr. Kenneth Olden, director, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and National Toxicology Program
— Dr. John Peters, president, Northern Illinois University
— Dr. John Petersen, chancellor and provost for university affairs, University of Connecticut
— Dr. Kenneth B. Roberts, pharmacy dean, University of Kentucky
— Dr. Thomas P. Ryan, editor and guest researcher, National Institute of Standards and Technology
— Dr. Bill W. Stacy, chancellor, UT-Chattanooga
— Rev. Robert A. Tripp, Methodist minister, Knoxville
— Dr. Bobby G. Webb, superintendent, Shelby County (Tenn.) School System, Memphis.
Source: University of Tennessee
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On the Net:
UT Search: http://pr.tennessee.edu/presidentialsearch/