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Who will pick UO’s next President?

Phil Knight, acting through BoT Secretary Angela Wilhelms and Chuck Lillis, or whoever replaces him as BoT Chair. InsideHigherEd had the story on what happened last time, here:

… In an interview, Lillis disputed a newspaper account from the meeting that said he created a process that “reserves broad powers for himself — and a select group of others” by allowing him to conduct the search with an “assist” from the committee members. The Register-Guard said Lillis’s plan gave him sole authority to rank and even eliminate finalists. In an interview Friday evening, he said he’s not on the search committee, would be involved only as a member of the board and would not be “directly involved” until there are some finalists. (Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect further information on the chairman’s broad powers in the following three paragraphs.)

But, the plan voted on by the board clearly gives Lillis more power than he let on.  The search plan approved by the board – which Lillis drew up – gives the chairman power to interview all the search committee’s finalists and a host of other powers.

“The chair is authorized to narrow the field of candidates after consultation with the committee, and is also authorized to rank the candidates,” the plan says.

Inside Higher Ed last week requested all documents that outlined the search plan but was not provided with the actual plan, which has was brought to the site’s attention on Monday by UO Matters, a blog that carefully follows the university. The plan clearly contradicts the chairman’s characterization of his powers in the Friday interview. A spokeswoman for the university, Julie Brown, said Monday the omission was “not intentional.” …

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