The WSU Board of Regents held a special executive meeting session Wednesday to evaluate top candidates in the ongoing search for the university’s next president.
The Board of Regents and the Presidental Seach Advisory Committee, established to help with preliminary candidate evaluations, have worked simultaneously to narrow down the applicant pool, said Board of Regents Chair Lisa Keohokalole Schauer.
“We have an exceptional committee that’s working toward ensuring that we’re looking at traditional candidates [government and industry leaders],” Schauer said. “We are pleased with the response that we’ve received from our internal community as to what they believe the challenges and opportunities at WSU are and what we need in our next president.”
On Nov. 18, 19, 20 and 25, the Advisory Committee completed their preliminary interviews of 10 top candidates for the presidential role, she said.
During Wednesday’s executive session, regents went through evaluations of the applicants based on recommendations the presidential search advisory committee presented.
“As a result of that search, the committee has recommended the Board of Regents further consider five exceptional candidates by conducting additional interviews,” Schauer said in a special session meeting of the Board.
The Advisory Committee’s role is limited to recommendations to the Board and cannot make applicant decisions on behalf of the Regents, she said.
“During the discussion in the private executive session, it became apparent that although there were many exceptionally well-qualified leaders with backgrounds skills and attributes that would benefit WSU greatly, a select few appeared to be rising above the others in terms of the others in terms of the enthusiasm their candidacy generated among the Regents,” Shauer said.
While the advisory committee does not have the authority to make a candidate selection, the regents empowered the committee to do the work in narrowing down the prospective candidate pool, something the committee achieved via feedback from outreach sessions held from April to September, according to Schauer.
During applicant screenings, the committee utilized the Presidential Leadership Profile, a list of qualifications and desired characteristics of the next WSU president, she said. The profile was first informed by the regents in June and then finalized and approved in September.
Based on the special session conversation, now that the presidential applicant pool is narrowed down to a few top candidates, the Board will proceed with both individual and collective deliberation, Schauer said.
“We’ll talk about what we’re looking for, and who of the final five candidates we think is the best match for WSU…we’ll then start to move forward with the process for negotiating a contract and we’ll approve the contract and announce the new president,” she said.
The anticipated timeline for the public release of WSU’s 12th system president will be sometime in January or February, Schauer said.
“We believe that because Shultz is still our president, it allows us enough time to make sure that we’re making the right decision. We don’t want to lose the best candidate because we’re taking too long, so we’re just trying to balance that thoughtfully,” she said.
While each member of the Board of Regents has individual opinions on candidate review, overall, the board is looking for someone who will continue to utilize pre-existing work that has been done under current President Kirk Schulz, Schauer said.
Schulz notified the Board of his interest in contractual change (leaving his position as president) in June 2023, and a public announcement of his decision to step down was released in April 2024.
“We’ve had almost a year to be working on a process that feels reflective of WSU’s values, our land grant mission and how we wanted to move this process forward. It’s been very collaborative and open,” Schauer said. “We just feel very fortunate to have had the time with him [Schulz] to put a good plan in place.”
“I’m excited and confident that not only has the process been inclusive and robust, but that the outcome will result in a phenomenal candidate to step in as our 12th WSU president,” she said. “[We are] so grateful for the work that those 25 individuals did to reach out to our community and to bring such phenomenal candidates in front of us.”
