Iowa State University picks four presidential finalists

A 21-member Iowa State University committee charged with searching for the school's next president has narrowed a pool of seven semifinalists to four finalists.

They will start visiting campus next week.

The search committee has spent the past two days interviewing the candidates at the Hilton Minneapolis-Bloomington in Minnesota. The members are not disclosing details about the finalists, who were chosen from a total of 64 applicants.

Names and biographical information about each candidate will be made public 24 hours before they visit the Ames campus. Those visits, which will include public town hall meetings, are scheduled for Thursday and Friday, Oct. 5-6, and Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 9-10.

Community members - including faculty, staff, students and the public - will be able to provide thoughts and opinions on the candidates on the ISU search website. The board will use that feedback in making a final decision, which is scheduled for Oct. 23.

The full Board of Regents also plans to meet with search committee members to get their thoughts on the candidates.

The person chosen for the job will succeed Steven Leath, who left Iowa State in May to become president of Auburn University in Alabama. Ben Allen, who served as dean of Iowa State's College of Business and as vice president and provost before transitioning to UNI president in 2006, has been serving as interim ISU president.

Although the ISU search committee did not disclose details about its finalists on Wednesday - including whether the group included any diversity or non-traditional experience - committee co-chairman Luis Rico-Gutierrez, dean of the ISU College of Design, said 'we had great candidates.”

The committee aired some disagreement on how the finalist town halls should be handled - with ISU professor Steven Freeman arguing the sessions shouldn't be streamed live online because of the advantage it gives the other candidates.

'It gives that last person an advantage,” he said of the fourth finalist to visit campus. 'That is not a level playing field.”

In recent presidential searches at University of Iowa and University of Northern Iowa, all the candidate town hall sessions were live-streamed in real time.

Jessica Bell, president of the university's professional and scientific staff, argued livestreaming is necessary because ISU employees are located statewide and some of whom won't be able to make the drive to Ames for the four forums.

Board spokesman Josh Lehman said the board office will decide how to handle streaming of the candidate forums.

l Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com