Candidate list for UT president narrowed to 12
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UT’s Presidential Search Advisory Council first cut the pool of 47 applicants to 16 based on recommendations from the consulting firm hired to assist it. Then, after a series of votes, the panel of trustees, alumni, faculty, students and staff cut another four names before adjourning.
“We have an excellent group of candidates, I’m very pleased with the people who stepped up,” said council member Spruell Driver, president-elect of the UT National Alumni Association. “The (upcoming) task will be difficult because of the quality of candidates, but that’s a great problem to have.”
The dozen finalists — including one UT campus chancellor, one woman and one minority — next will be interviewed and undergo extensive background checks before the Board of Trustees selects a president later this month.
“You are the gatekeeper for the eventual president of the University of Tennessee,” trustee and council chairman Jim Murphy told his colleagues before they began work Monday.
The unusually open presidential selection process came in response to the downfall of a president who had been wooed to the job in secret by a consultant. John Shumaker resigned in August when his penchant for lavish living at the university’s expense was exposed after 14 months on the job.
“We’ve taken extraordinary measures to ensure all of us know as much as we possibly can about each of the candidates,” consultant Gary Daugherty told the council. Daugherty’s firm had “direct, candid” conversations with all candidates and made them certify in writing that their resumes were accurate.
“Each assured us there is nothing there that will cause us, their current institution or the University of Tennessee any embarrassment.”
The 12 finalists picked by the search council are:
— Jerry W. Askew, senior vice president for advancement and community development at Saint Mary’s Health System in Knoxville.
— Jack Burns, vice president for academic affairs and research in the University of Colorado system.
— Brady Deaton, vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Missouri at Columbia and a former UT professor.
— William E. Evans, scientific director and executive vice president at the Saint Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis.
— Tom Galligan Jr., dean of the University of Tennessee College of Law.
— Kermit Hall, president and professor of history at Utah State University.
— Karen Hitchcock, president of the State University of New York at Albany.
— Thomas Meredith, chancellor of the University System of Georgia.
— Kenneth Olden, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and National Toxicology Program, and a native Tennessean.
— John Peters, president of Northern Illinois University and a former provost for UT-Knoxville.
— John Petersen, chancellor and provost for university affairs at the University of Connecticut.
— Bill W. Stacy, chancellor at UT-Chattanooga.
Monday’s selection was particularly special to Olden, who — because he is black — was refused entry into UT as a student almost 50 years earlier.
“I’m obviously very pleased and excited,” Olden said. “I look forward to having a discussion with the search committee.”
The open process hasn’t eliminated the potential for controversy. One finalist has been named in a sex and age discrimination lawsuit over his actions as chancellor of the University of Alabama system.
Former UA-Birmingham President W. Ann Reynolds sued the system’s board of trustees, claiming that Meredith and the board president told her, at age 63, to announce her retirement within a few days.
The suit also claimed that Meredith “did not want to continue to have to deal with a forceful woman” and treated Reynolds in a “demeaning and sexist manner.” It cited an episode in New York City, when Meredith had Reynolds “trudge around Manhattan in the rain to stand in line and purchase him tickets to Broadway’s hottest plays.”
Daugherty told The Associated Press Monday that was aware of the lawsuit but didn’t know it had been resolved. He also said he hadn’t spoken about the allegations to Meredith, who now works in Georgia.
“I don’t think, based upon what I know, it is relevant,” Daugherty said. “It’s something the Search Advisory Council might want to talk about when they meet with him. But it wasn’t anything that made us waver in our pursuit of him when it comes to candidates.”
A woman who answered the phone at Meredith’s office said he was unavailable for comment.
Two high-profile candidates, former head of the National Transportation Safety Board Jim Hall and former director of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory William J. Madia, didn’t make the finalist list. Madia was among four the council cut from the 16 it first considered.
“I am surprised (Madia was cut), but I was surprised with most of the people who came out,” Murphy said. “He was one that had a lot of qualifications, (but) not much academic experience.”
Brief bios of the 12 candidates for UT president
Brief biographies of the 12 people chosen Monday as candidates for president of the University of Tennessee:
Dr. Jerry Askew
Senior vice president for advancement and community development for St. Mary’s Health System in Knoxville. Askew, 50, oversees the system’s two foundations and its community outreach and philanthropic initiatives. Previously served as president and CEO of the East Tennessee Foundation, a Knoxville-based charity serving 24 counties. He also served from 1985-1998 in various capacities at UT, including as dean of students, associated vice chancellor for development and alumni affairs, and teaching positions in the College of Education and University Honors Department. Askew received a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, his master’s from Memphis State University; and Ph.D. from Ohio State.
Dr. Jack Burns
Vice president for academic affairs and research for the four-campus University of Colorado system, coordinating undergraduate and graduate/professional programs. Professor of astrophysics and a NASA-funded researcher at CU-Boulder. Previously served as vice provost for research at the University of Missouri-Columbia; as associate dean for the College of Arts and Sciences at New Mexico State University; and as a consultant at Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories. Burns, 51, received his bachelor’s degree in astrophysics from the University of Massachusetts; and both his master’s and Ph.D. from Indiana University.
Dr. Brady Deaton
Provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs for the University of Missouri-Columbia since 1998. Joined UM-C faculty in 1989 as professor of agriculture economics. Previously served as chief of staff and deputy chancellor at the University of Missouri, and as associate director for the office of international development at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Deaton, 61, was an assistant and associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology at UT from 1972-1978. Received bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics and master’s in diplomacy and international commerce from University of Kentucky, and Ph.D. in agricultural economics from the University of Wisconsin.
William E. Evans
Scientific director and executive vice president for the Saint Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis and professor at the UT Health Science Center. Joined UT faculty in 1974, and St. Jude’s in 1976. Served on Governor’s Biotechnology Task Force. Elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 2002. Evans, 53, received his bachelor’s and doctoral degrees from UT.
Tom Galligan Jr.
Dean of the University of Tennessee College of Law, teaching torts, admiralty and remedies. Previously taught at the Paul M. Herbert Law Center at LSU from 1986 to 1998. Published in numerous journals, including the Tennessee Law Review, Louisiana Law Review and the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform. Has written two unpublished novels and completed 17 marathons. Galligan received his law degree from the University of Puget Sound (now Seattle University) in 1981, and a postgraduate law degree from Columbia University Law School in 1986.
Kermit Hall
President and professor of history at Utah State University. Previously served as provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at North Carolina State University and in several leadership positions at Ohio State. Held fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Received in 1999 the American Library Association’s James Madison Award for his service on the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Review Board, which he was appointed to by former President Bill Clinton. Hall, 59, received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Akron, a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, and an M.S.L. from Yale Law School.
Karen Hitchcock
President of the State University of New York at Albany since 1996 after having served as interim president for nine months. She also served as vice president of academic affairs from 1991-1995. SUNY-Albany’s student population totals 17,000, including 5,000 graduate and professional students. Hitchcock received her bachelor’s degree in biology from St. Lawrence University in New York, along with a Ph.D. in anatomy from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.
Thomas Meredith
Chancellor since Jan. 2002 of the University System of Georgia, responsible for the state’s 34 public colleges and universities with an enrollment of nearly 250,000 students, 35,000 faculty and staff, and an annual budget of $4.6 billion. Previously served in same capacity for the University of Alabama system. A native of Owensboro, Ky., Meredith, 62, is president of the National Association of System Heads, an organization comprised of the chief executive officers of the 51 public higher education systems in the United States. Meredith holds a bachelor’s degree from Kentucky Wesleyan University and a Ph.D. from the University of Mississippi.
Kenneth Olden
Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and National Toxicology Program. Olden’s appointment to the post in 1991 by former President Bush made him the first African-American to head one of the institutes in the National Institutes of Health in the Department of Health and Human Services. A highly regarded cancer researcher, Olden, 65, previously served as professor and chairman of the department of oncology and director of the Cancer Center at Howard University. Olden, a native Tennessean, received his bachelor’s degree from Knoxville College in 1960, a master’s in genetics from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in cell biology/biochemistry from Temple University.
John Peters
President since 2000 of Northern Illinois University, a metro-Chicago area institution with a student enrollment of over 25,000. Previously served as provost for UT-Knoxville from 1993-2000. Before coming to UT, Peters, 58, was dean of arts and sciences and associate to the chancellor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. A native of Ohio, Peters received a bachelor’s degree from John Carroll University, a master’s from Ohio University, and his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Illinois.
John Petersen
Chancellor and provost since 2000 for university affairs at the University of Connecticut, serving as chief academic and chief operating officer for six campuses, the School of Law and the School of Social Work. Previously dean of the College of Science at Wayne State University from 1994-2000. Peterson, 56, is active in the American Chemical Society and sits on the executive committee for chief academic officers for the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges. A California native, Petersen received his bachelor’s degree from California State University-Los Angeles, and a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from the University of California-Santa Barbara.
Bill W. Stacy
Chancellor at UT-Chattanooga since 1997, where he developed a “Campus Master Plan” and oversaw the school’s first doctoral programs in physical therapy and computational engineering. Previously served as founding president of California State University-San Marcos from 1989-1997, and as president of Southeast Missouri State University from 1979-1989. Received bachelor’s degree from Southeast Missouri State; and both a master’s and Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University.