Full disclosure

The IU board of trustees is currently circulating a plan to improve transparency and efficiency when hiring high-ranking administrators. The multi-point plan calls for, among other changes, the names of finalists to be disclosed to the public. With newly vacated positions in the College of Arts and Sciences and with IU President Adam Herbert's announced intention to leave IU in 2008, we believe such an improvement to the currently flawed search process is imperative for IU to find the best and most qualified person for particular jobs.\nForemost, IU is a public institution, and as such it should be run publicly and democratically. Public scrutiny is a must when it comes to appointing positions for indefinite lengths of time, especially people who can profoundly affect the way tuition dollars are allocated and affect the way the University conducts its business. These new guidelines will allow faculty members to ask questions of a candidate's previous employers, colleagues and reputation; they will allow students to partake in open meetings with the candidates and quiz them; and they will allow third parties, like the media, to conduct their own interviews and further inform the public about the selection process.\nInvariably, there will be some natural resistance to this kind of disclosure. The prevailing -- and, we believe, incorrect -- thought is that full disclosure of finalists would turn away the most qualified candidates who are fearful they will be outed, so to speak, in their search for a new job. When a search committee chose Herbert in 2002, for example, none of the finalists were made public. But this doesn't fully benefit University constituents. We believe that applicants should not be afraid to have their qualifications examined, nor should the search committee, trustees or the president be afraid to defend their choices and explain their decisions.\nWe also believe such disclosure doesn't turn away otherwise superbly qualified candidates. A good example of this search process, already in use, is the recent hiring of the new dean of the IU School of Journalism. Three finalists were announced and came to visit the journalism school, meeting with faculty members and answering questions from students. Those involved in the school were then able to provide their opinions, and Ken Gros Louis, then the interim IU-Bloomington chancellor, made the final selection of dean -- but, notably, only after the public was able to meet with the finalists. \nFor the last few months, amid strife and controversy, faculty, students and this editorial page have all called for greater transparency in the University hiring process. If the process is restructured the way it ought to be, we'll rightfully be closer to having the open and expedited search process we deserve.