A bill that would allow the selection of University of Wyoming and state community college presidents to be closed to the public has passed the legislature and has reached the desk of Gov. Matt Mead, who has not indicated whether he will sign it into law.
“I know the Legislature seems by their votes to be very excited by this possibility, but I’ve let them know that I need some more discussion on this, so I’m torn on it,” Mead said Tuesday.
Jim Angell, executive director of the Wyoming Press Association, said he expected Mead to sign the bill into law because of the strong support it attracted.
Donal O’Toole, a professor of veterinary sciences at the University of Wyoming, says he is not sure if Mead will pass the bill.
“I’m not sure if he will or not. I hope he’s not just saying this to give us a look into his soul,” O’Toole said.
House Bill 223 was fast-tracked through the session in 10 days. It passed the House last week on a 41-18 vote, and the Senate approved it 23-7 Tuesday.
The bill was proposed after media outlets in the state protested the decision by UW’s board of trustees to hold a confidential search for a new president to replace retiring President Tom Buchanan.
A state district judge last month ruled in a lawsuit filed by several media outlets, including The Associated Press, that current law requires that the names of UW president finalists be made public. However, the bill that passed Tuesday would have the new law take effect immediately with the governor’s signature, effectively nullifying the court ruling.
“I think the trustees appreciate the support of the Legislature in this important process,” UW lobbyist Chris Boswell said.
The UW presidential search attracted 88 candidates. A screening committee had narrowed the list to eight people when the court ruling was issued. Boswell said after the judge’s decision that two of the eight remaining candidates dropped out and two others said they would withdraw if the law failed to pass.
The trustees wanted at least five finalists for the job.
“My concern is that the trustees want a deep pool because they think the more we have the better off we are,” O’Toole said. “But we just need one reliable and trustworthy person who is capable of making difficult decisions for the university.”
In the Senate’s final debate on the proposal, proponents of the legislation said that since the UW trustees decided at the outset to conduct a confidential search, it would be bad policy to open the process now.
“For today, I think the right thing is to live up to the promises that we made to those candidates over at the university,” said Sen. Bill Landen, R-Lander.
O’Toole says that the promise the Board of Trustees made to the candidates is one of the reasons there has been such a push to keep the names secret and that it was a mistake to make those promises to begin with.
“The trustees promised the applicants that their names would be kept secret, which they never should have done because they knew it would be challenged in court and it was,” O’Toole said.
But Sen. Dan Dockstader, R-Afton, said vetting the finalists in the open was important because UW was a large institution supported by state financing.
“It’s simply a call for transparency where tens of millions are spent,” Dockstader said.
O’Toole also agreed that Wyoming citizens should be informed of the finalists.
“The president’s employer is not the Board of Trustees, his employer is the people of Wyoming,” he said. “It’s a long and slow process to build up a university and it takes just one person who doesn’t understand the culture of the university or the culture of Wyoming to come in and make a mess of it.”
O’Toole is hoping that if the bill is signed and the Board of Trustees can maintain the secrecy of the finalists that all the applicant they choose will be a right fit for the university.
“Time will tell and I just hope it’s someone who has been around the block,” he said. “I hope it’s someone who stand independent and use his best judgment to stand up to the trustees.”
