For the first time, students will be directly involved with the selection of a University of Wyoming president.
Two UW students will be serving on the presidential selection committee, one for each tier of eliminations.
Bryan Dugas, a first-year medical student, and ASUW Vice President Brett Kahler will be meeting with the trustees regularly in the coming weeks leading up to February, when the new president is expected to be announced.
The students will be required to sign a contract of confidentiality agreeing not to release the names of applicants.
“At this point forward, students will be involved a lot more in the search process,” said ASUW President Joel Defebaugh, who also has been involved with defining the selection process.
Defebaugh was asked by the UW Board of Trustees President, David Bostrom, to compile a list of students to serve on the committee.
“It was a short list. They needed somebody who is not afraid to speak out but also has a good grasp of how students on campus feel and can articulate that,” Defebaugh said.
Bostrom picked two of the students from Defebaugh’s list.
Defebaugh said he wanted to see a larger number of students involved, either now or in the future, but it was an improvement over the last selection process when students were not involved at all.
The presidential selection committees are comprised of 23 stakeholders — faculty, staff, trustees, state industry representatives, one state legislator and a community college president. Students compose nine percent of the committee.
Defebaugh said he felt being involved in choosing a new president is important.
“In our state, that position is the second most influential person in the state after the governor,” he said.
There are ways the other 13,997 students on campus still can have a voice in the process. The consulting firm assisting UW with the presidential search, Greenwood/Asher and Associates, sent a representative to the Coe Library to hear student concerns on Nov. 1.
Anyone, student or otherwise, who knows of an individual who is qualified for the position is encouraged to notify the search firm with contact information.
Students also can speak with the two students, Dugas and Kahler, who will be serving on the presidential selection committee. These students are there to represent the interests of the students, Defebaugh said.
Student input already has been incorporated into the presidential profile, the job description by which the applicants will be evaluated. The UW Board of Trustees compiled this earlier in the semester using a public request for input via email and press release.
