Madeleine Coles
News Editor
On Sept. 29, the Idaho State Board of Education announced the search process for the new ISU President, which included releasing the names of members of the President Search Committee.
The committee, which is composed of 13 members, includes representatives from a number of areas related to the university. Richard Westerberg, a member of the ISBOE, serves as the chair of the committee, assisted by Emma Atchley, another ISBOE member.
The committee also includes Kebai Bills as an alumni representative, Judith Crews as an ISU-Meridian faculty representative, Dirk Driscoll as an ISU Foundation representative, Lewis Eakins as an ISU non-instructional staff representative, Roy Lacey and Randy’L Teton as community representatives, Jake Osti as an ISU-Idaho Falls student representative, Jessica Sargent as a student representative, Cornelis Van der Schyf as an ISU administration representative, and Chad Pope and Gene Warren as ISU faculty representatives.
In the announcement, the State Board also gave a rough outline of the six-month search process, which it will be conducting with the assistance of the Association of Governing Boards, an organization which provides college and university leadership search consulting services.
The board stated that the search would open Nov. 2 and candidates will be able to submit their application materials. The search will close in January, at which time the search committee will review all applications and select a candidate group for initial interviews to be held in February. After the initial interview process, campus visits will be scheduled for the remaining candidates, and the committee will recommend finalists to the State Board. The board will then interview the finalists and make its selection in early spring.
But to begin the process, from Oct. 9-12, AGB search consultants along with Blake Youde, Chief Communications and Legislative Affairs Officer for the ISBOE, held a number of “listening sessions” attended by students, faculty, staff and community members where attendees were asked to answer three questions: what are the challenges the university faces, what characteristics should the new president have, and why should a presidential candidate want to work at ISU?
According to AGB, the results from these forums will be used to piece together an employment posting to be published nationally.
Issues raised in the student forum included increasing diversity, providing better services to non-traditional students, specifically veterans, and maintaining reasonable tuition prices.
Many students expressed their opinion that the new president should be an advocate for students and a “recognizable and visible force on campus.” Other student concerns included the desire for a president who would invest in ISU.
However, it was during the faculty listening forum that the cracks between the upper administration and faculty members at ISU were truly visible.
Multiple faculty members stated their concern with the representatives chosen for the search committee and the process by which they were chosen. One faculty member stated she didn’t feel represented by those chosen as representatives, and added that there was no visible process in choosing the members.
Another faculty member echoed those sentiments, adding that she believed there was a missed opportunity for faculty to feel as though they were truly involved in the search process.
According to Westerberg, the committee members were chosen based on a recommendation from the AGB as to how many members the committee should have and the type of positions members should hold. He added that representatives were chosen from names that were submitted to the board from alumni groups and the Bengal Foundation, as well as other areas.
“One of the members is the co-chair of the faculty senate,” he said. “I don’t know how you can get much more representative than that.”
But many faculty members still expressed a lack of confidence in the search process. At least one faculty member cited statements made by certain search committee members to the Idaho State Journal as a primary reason for his concern.
Driscoll, the ISU Foundation representative, spoke with the Idaho State Journal and stated that he hoped the next president would be as good a listener as he found President Vailas to be. Additionally, Lacey, one of the community representatives, stated that the faculty would “test” the new president, as they had with President Vailas.
The faculty member stated that he no longer believed at least those two committee members would listen to the comments and suggestions made in the forum, as they seemed to have “already made up their mind about a great many things.”
Multiple other faculty members stated that they believed there was reason to doubt the search process and, ultimately, expressed fear that the end result would be a member of ISU’s upper administration being anointed the new president.
“If any current member of the ISU upper administration is selected for this position, it will be an unmitigated disaster,” one faculty member said. “More of the same is not what this distressed and struggling institution needs.”
However, the ISBOE maintains that the search process is thorough and sincere.
“This board would not have brought on AGB and would not have stated immediately it intends to have a national search if this was going to be an exercise to appoint someone internally,” Youde said. “The board was adamant that this be a national search. They are dedicated to that.”
