The Idaho State Board of Education chose the next president of the University of Idaho Wednesday and will likely let the public in on its choice by Feb. 20, according to Pocatello board member Karen McGee.
"We've told our executive director (Gary Stivers) that we've OK'd that he can enter into a contract with the person that we think would be very good," McGee said from the board's office in Boise. "So, hopefully we'll have an announcement soon."
The two candidates, who were interviewed by the board in executive session in Boise Wednesday, are Stephen Jones and Timothy White
Jones, 52, is vice chancellor for extension and outreach at North Carolina State Univer-sity in Raleigh. He has degrees in resource management and forestry.
White, 54, is provost and executive vice president at Oregon State University in Corvallis. White, who has degrees in exercise and sports science, also served as OSU's interim president for eight months in 2002-2003.
The board will announce the choice in Moscow, pending the successful negotiation of an employment contract.
Since the final interviews of the candidates were conducted in executive session, an official vote could not be taken. But McGee described the board's action as naming a "first choice." If a contract can't be negotiated for some reason, the nomination would fall to the remaining candidate.
The lengthy nationwide search began last year after Robert Hoover resigned over the controversy generated by his largely failed efforts to build University Place, a UI satellite campus in Boise.
The search turned up administrators from land-grant universities with missions similar to the UI's.
Aside from the face-to-face interviews, McGee said presidential screening committee chairman and board Vice President Jim Hammond of Post Falls presented mountains of input his group has received from UI administrators, faculty, staff, students and other Idahoans since Jones and White toured the state last month. Members of the committee also addressed the board.
"They felt that these candidates were candidates that were really going to move forward and not backward," she said. "Not saying that you don't learn from mistakes, but let's get on and not always talk about the past."
She said that although the candidates were very similar in that either would be an excellent president, they did display some differences.
"I think probably the biggest thing that set them apart in my mind is the fact that one of them (White) had been an acting president," she said. "And one (Jones) had not had that experience but had experience in putting partnerships together that the other one didn't have."
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Mills may be contacted at jmills @lmtribune.com