Our Views: Move toward more openness

As LSU officials continue their search for a new system president, we suggest that they consider what’s happening at the University of Wyoming.

Recently, after a months-long fight to keep private the names of candidates for the University of Wyoming presidency, the university’s board of trustees decided it will release the names of its presidential search finalists.

A couple of Wyoming newspapers and The Associated Press had sued the University of Wyoming to make the names of candidates for the top university posts public. Meanwhile, a state law was passed in Wyoming aimed at keeping the names of such candidates for top university posts secret.

Ultimately, though, the University of Wyoming’s board of trustees opted to release the names of presidential search finalists. The University of Wyoming should have released the names of all applicants for the presidential post. That’s the only way for the public to know that the best candidate was selected for the job.

We hope LSU officials, who have refused to release the names of any candidates they are considering to serve as LSU’s next president, do the University of Wyoming one better and release the names of all candidates being considered for LSU’s top job.

We don’t think such openness would be an obstacle in attracting a good president for LSU. In fact, open searches can help build public confidence that the best person was selected for the job.

We’re glad that University of Wyoming officials are moving, somewhat awkwardly, in the direction of transparency. Now is the time for LSU to do the same.

Comments

1) Comment by phil - 27/02/2013

There should be an online database of all public documents so the public can easily view the documents without having to make public record requests. This could actually save money in some instances when several different groups make the same public record request and get copies of the same documents. Perhaps not all public documents could be listed, but at least the ones in the news could be and possibly also all of these cooperative endeavor agreements, ordinances, etc that are approved with no knowledge of the people. It would not really be that hard to do or expensive with the technology that is available these days.

2) Comment by [e-mail] - 27/02/2013

National searches are not conducive to open discussions or debates as to the merits of job hoppers and resume enhancers.

3) Comment by SuzanneMS - 27/02/2013

I think it's important to distinguish between applicants and candidates. Many people who do not even meet the minimum standards will apply; there's no need to release those names. But the names of the candidates -- those who do meet the minimum standards and are being considered -- should be released. At the very least, the names of the semi-finalists should be released. LSU can't do that, or it would be obvious that there is and always has been only one name on the finalist list -- and that he is not remotely qualified. Actually, Mildred, many administrators and professionals apply for positions elsewhere in order to use it as leverage to get a better offer from their current institutions; I've seen it happen more than once. The only ones in danger of losing their current position are those who are skating on thin ice to begin with. For the others, the response is, "We'd better keep him happy or he'll leave!"

4) Comment by bourbon-soda - 27/02/2013

@Mildred - Good point, that too much openness too early can deter some good applicants. If the public knew who was the best candidate, you could do selection by plebiscite - just put the names on the ballot and have an election with runoffs. That should bring some stellar candidates out of the woodwork.

5) Comment by Mildred Citizen - 27/02/2013

My view......find the best person for the job. Some candidates will not apply if their intentions will be made public. How can they continue to lead their present university if they are not selected? Who will follow thier lead then? Everyone will think, "Why should we listen to you? You want to leave anyway!" Keep this private. Normal people understand this. It doesn't help a newspaper break news stories, but it is conducive to finding the best person for the job. So, my view is different from "Our Views".