The College Fix

Universities are going to great lengths to hide their presidential searches, even as their communities demand more transparency and say.

The Student Press Law Center has been publicizing those great lengths through its Sack Secrecy page, saying that “hiring a college president shouldn’t be like running a drug ring.”

Just in the past week, Suffolk University has refused to even say which consulting firm is leading its search, the Boston Globe reports:

Until two weeks ago, more than three months after Suffolk abruptly replaced James McCarthy as president, the university still had not formally announced a search for a permanent leader, an omission that had not gone unnoticed on the downtown Boston campus.

“Everyone has been wondering what’s going on,” said longtime Suffolk professor John Berg, who e-mailed a large group of faculty about his concerns. “There’s been a lot of speculation about what’s happening.”

Don’t worry – the school spokesman is promising “transparency and inclusiveness,” except when the school needs to be “confidential.”

The University of Toledo is so fearful of its eight candidates’ identities becoming public that it’s going to interview them at an unnamed “regional airport” next month, the Toledo Blade reports:

The committee met mostly in executive session as it considered and discussed applicants for the position. Committee chairman, Joseph H. Zerbey IV, who is also The Blade’s president and general manager and chairman of UT’s Board of Trustees, declined to comment after the meeting, deferring to Larry Burns, UT’s vice president of external affairs.

The school has been led by an interim president for six months already.

Read the Globe and Blade stories.

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