Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
- Utah lawmakers propose making university president selection processes confidential, sparking transparency concerns.
- Senate Majority Whip Chris Wilson argues confidentiality attracts higher-quality candidates and protects privacy.
- The Utah Media Coalition opposes the bill, emphasizing public involvement in vetting candidates s crucial.
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah lawmakers are looking to make the process of selecting presidents for public universities secret, prompting pushback from transparency advocates.
Senate Majority Whip Chris Wilson, R-Logan, argues by making the process confidential, the Utah Board of Higher Education will be able attract more high-quality candidates and said the current process forces the "unnecessary disclosure" and "discussion of their personal details."
His bill, SB282, would exempt the board's search committee from public meetings requirements, restrict presidential applications from public view and require that the board "protect candidate confidentiality." The search committee would recommend three finalists for each open position to the board, which would meet in a public meeting only when making a final hire.
"Job applicants deserve privacy throughout the hiring process, especially if they are not selected for the position," Wilson told a Senate committee last week. He said the bill "strikes a crucial balance between safeguarding individual privacy and upholding transparency."
Rep. Doug Fiefia, R-Herriman, joined Wilson in presenting the bill to the House Education Committee Friday and said he has been involved in a recent search to fill the presidency at Utah State University. He said current presidents often don't want to apply for other open jobs, limiting the quality of the candidate pool.
"It was a mess to say it nicely," Fiefia said of the process. "This privacy part is actually really, really key, because we missed out on a lot of great candidates who weren't willing to apply because their name would be made public. That's like going and applying for another job ... and having to come back and say, 'Oh, actually I like this job.'"
Wilson said the last search at Utah State "was a failure ... and I think a lot of that was because of the public. We did not have the candidate pool we should have had with sitting current presidents that would apply for that position."
The Utah Media Coalition — which advocates for government transparency and represents KSL.com and other media outlets — spoke against the proposal, however, saying it cuts the public out of "perhaps the most important decision" made by the Utah Board of Higher Education. Utah law currently allows for the release of three to five finalists, which the coalition says allows the public and other stakeholders to vet those in consideration.
Jeff Hunt, a First Amendment attorney who represents the coalition, said the public process allows for further vetting of candidates and could turn up relevant information that the private search committee missed.
"There's value in allowing the public to have a role in this process," he said. "I understand there's stakeholders on the search committee, but the most important stakeholder is the public."
SB282 has already cleared the Senate with only one "no" vote and passed a House committee Friday, setting up a final vote on the legislation sometime next week before lawmakers adjourn at midnight on March 7.
