Regents move forward with five presidential finalists

The pool of potential candidates to serve as the 12^th president of Washington State University has been narrowed down to five finalists.

Members of the WSU Board of Regents met for a special meeting today to discuss the recommendation of the Presidential Search Advisory Committee. That recommendation called for conducting additional due diligence and interviews with the finalists.

In approving the committee's recommendation, the board will move forward with the next phase of the process.

"We are excited to advance these five candidates to interviews, which we will do in January," Lisa Keohokalole Schauer, chair of the WSU Board of Regents, said. "Following the interviews, the board intends on having open discussions as to our preferred candidate, and then those discussions will lead to what we hope is a successful contracting and negotiation with our next president. We will then be ready to make an announcement."

The board intends to maintain the confidentiality of the finalists, referring to them in their vote as candidates A through E. Several regents and members of the search committee expressed their support for the process so far, which included more than two dozen listening sessions held across Washington that resulted in more than 140 comments from the university community.

Prior to the vote, Jenette Ramos, who is leading the Presidential Search Advisory Committee, provided an overview of the work undertaken by the 25-person group so far. From a field of more than 250 individuals who were contacted by Isaacson, Miller, an executive search firm assisting in the search process, 10 preferred candidates accepted interview invitations.

Members of the search committee met with the 10 semifinalists in Spokane Nov. 18-20 for 90 minute sessions. Following those interviews, the committee selected five finalists to put forward to the Board of Regents for further consideration.

The WSU Board of Regents is scheduled to host regular meetings Jan. 23-24 in Seattle.

More information on the Presidential Search Advisory Committee is available on the group's website.