University of Minnesota regents pick 3 finalists for president

University of Minnesota regents on Friday narrowed their president search down to three candidates, marking the first time in years that U leaders have named multiples finalists for the U's top job.

Remaining in contention are: Laura Bloomberg, the president of Cleveland State University and former dean of the U's Humphrey School of Public Affairs; Rebecca Cunningham, vice president for research and innovation at the University of Michigan; and James Holloway, provost and executive vice president of academic affairs at the University of New Mexico.

The U president is responsible for overseeing five campuses that enroll about 68,000 students and employ more than 27,000 people. Regents have called this a consequential moment in the U's history and said they expect choosing a new president will be among the most important tasks of their tenure.

Regent Mary Davenport, who has been leading the hiring efforts, said trying to find the next president has been a bit like searching for the human equivalent of a "Swiss army knife" — they're searching for someone who can fill a lot of different roles.

"These are hard jobs, especially recently," she said.

The U began searching for a new president last year, after then-President Joan Gabel announced she would be leaving to take a job at the University of Pittsburgh. Former Hormel CEO Jeff Ettinger has been serving as interim president since June.

The search is unfolding at a critical time for the U. Some of its campuses, like other schools across the country, have faced enrollment drops as American skepticism of higher education increases and concerns about costs mount. State lawmakers have asked for deeper accountings of the school's finances as they weigh whether to grant requests for hundreds of millions in extra funding. The U is also in negotiations that will determine the financial future of its medical school, the only public one in the state.

Competition for university leaders is especially fierce, as pandemic fatigue, political stressors and increasing demands to wade into cultural conflicts contribute to burnout and turnover in schools' highest ranks. The Chronicle of Higher Education, one of the most popular places for colleges to post jobs, had nearly 130 listings for president, chancellors and vice presidents this month.

'Excited about our choices'

Regents in August agreed to pay the Illinois-based firm WittKieffer more than $200,000 for help finding the system's next president. The position drew 46 candidates, a decrease compared to other hiring efforts. The search that led to Gabel's selection in 2018 drew about 60 applicants, and the search that led to Eric Kaler's selection in 2010 attracted almost 150 candidates.

Zach Smith, an executive partner for WittKieffer and one of the lead consultants on the U's search, said several factors appeared to contribute to the decrease. He said the job has grown more complex, some of the university's rankings have risen, and many leadership searches have seen a "slight decrease" in candidates since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Smith said there are fewer qualified people willing to take on "a role of this magnitude that has increased in depth, breadth and complexity over the last decade. Therefore, people tend to self-select out when they do not feel they meet the qualifications of an increasingly complex job."

Smith described the U's pool of candidate as "normal and healthy," and regents leading the search efforts said they were pleased with the caliber of people who applied.

"We're very excited about our choices," Board Chair Janie Mayeron said before the meeting.

Many of the earlier stages in the vetting process occurred in private. The university, citing the Minnesota Data Practices Act, said it wouldn't release information about specific candidates until they are named as finalists. Finalists will be expected to participate soon in public forums on each of the system's five campuses.

To help winnow down the field, regents appointed a 24-member search advisory committee that included students, employees and alumni, among others.

Student government leaders had asked the board for more representation on the committee, noting that only three of its members were current students and they were "deeply disappointed to see that student voices from all campuses are not represented."

Mayeron said the board tried to assemble a committee that included representation for a mixture of students, faculty, donors and community members. "There is no magic or science to this," she said, adding that they tried to reach out to others in different ways.

Davenport said the committee reviewed materials from each applicant and invited 13 of them to interview. One dropped out. The remaining 12 came to town for in-person interviews at a hotel, she said. Then, she said the committee voted unanimously to recommend four candidates to the Board of Regents for further consideration.

Hopes for the next president

In interviews with the Star Tribune before the finalists were announced, student and faculty leaders outlined some of their hopes for the U's next president.

Gabriel Richardson, president of Professional Student Government, said the organization is hoping for a president who will build strong relationships with the Legislature and advocate for more funding to reduce tuition increases.

"We are concerned that, in the last few years, what we received from the state has not been exactly what should have been allocated to the university," Richardson said. "We're wishing that the state can be a little bit more generous and understand that education, especially professional education, is essential to the future of the economy of Minnesota."

Flora Yang, a representative to the Board of Regents and former president of Undergraduate Student Government, hopes for a president who's open to having tough conversations and trying new ways to support students' mental health and basic needs.

When it comes to tackling tough issues, many schools are "looking to each other for support or validation," Yang said. "Sometimes, when none of the schools have done something yet, it's tough to take that first step."

Whitney Taha Frakes, president of a committee that advocates for about 7,000 employees, including support staff and instructors, said their members are looking for a candidate with a proven track record of supporting diversity and equity. They're also looking for someone capable of supporting all five campuses.

"We are not just the Twin Cities," Taha Frakes said. "There are four other campuses throughout greater Minnesota with a pretty distinct purpose and approach."

Faculty have differing opinions on what they'd like to see in the next president, but a few issues consistently come up in their conversations, said Mark Bee, chair of the Faculty Consultative Committee.

"I think the next president will have to be a staunch defender of academic freedom," Bee said. "It seems we are living in a time when academic freedom is under threat from outside the institution, sometimes from inside the institution."

Bee hopes the next president will create an updated strategic plan that inspires faculty and more clearly outlines the university's goals. He also hopes that the president will work with the Legislature and others to find a way to boost faculty salaries. A report produced by the committee found that faculty salaries had fallen about 20% below those offered at other research institutions, prompting some to leave for other jobs and making it harder for department heads to make new hires.

Bee said, "Those are alarm bells for the institution and institutional leads that I hope the next president will hear loud and clear."