The University of Minnesota could be poised to hire its first female or minority top leader as the search for a president enters the final stretch.
The university's search committee announced Friday that it interviewed nine contenders for the job out of a total of 67 applicants. Women made up roughly a fifth of the application pool, but five of the nine who scored an interview were female. A third of those interviewees were people of color, compared with 25 percent among all 67 applicants.
The committee then narrowed down the list further, though the U would not say how many candidates made that shortlist or disclose information about their demographics. The U's search consultants are vetting these front-runners before their names are passed on to the governing board.
Faculty and others had called on the U to release demographic data on the applicant pool to reassure the campuses that the university is in a position to at least strongly consider women and applicants of color for the presidency, which white men have held exclusively since the U's founding in 1851.
"I found it very encouraging that the search committee took diversity seriously," said Joseph Konstan, the head of the faculty senate.
The university did not provide additional information on the applicants' qualifications or experience, except to say that they come "from a variety of backgrounds." When the U last set out to recruit a president in 2010, its job description called for a leader with experience in academia, but this time around regents have suggested they're more open to nontraditional candidates. Eric Kaler, who was among 150 candidates for the job in 2010, is stepping down next summer.
Nationally, the college and university presidency remains a job largely held by white men. But in Minnesota, the State Colleges and Universities system and private nonprofit campuses have made headway in recruiting female presidents and, to a lesser extent, leaders of color in recent years. The chancellors at three of the U's four greater Minnesota campuses are women, all of them appointed last year.
The U said its search committee chose "a smaller number" of candidates for closer vetting, which will include checking their credentials and references and reviewing their credit history as well as conducting civil, criminal and DMV background checks. Later this month or in early December, the committee is slated to recommend three or four applicants to the full Board of Regents. Once regents choose finalists to interview on campus, their names will become public.
