Hiring (and Firing) Bytes

Kansas State University Provost M. Duane Nellis has been appointed president of the University of Idaho, despite declining the job last month because the salary offered by the Idaho State Board of Education was too low, the Associated Press reports. The board, however, upped its offer to $335,000, which will make Nellis the best-paid public-university chief in the state, the AP notes.
Florida International University has pared its list of presidential finalists down to three, The Miami Herald reports. Two of the leading contenders — Ronald Berkman, Florida International’s current provost and executive vice president, and Mark Rosenberg, Florida International’s former provost and, most recently, chancellor of Florida’s state education system — are insiders. The third contender is Carlos Santiago, chancellor at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. The university’s governing board is expected to make its final choice on Saturday.
Faculty and staff members at Eastern Kentucky University won’t get raises this year, the Richmond Register reports.
The University of Washington plans to eliminate about 1,000 jobs by the beginning of May, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported last week. While an as-yet-to-be-determined number of layoffs will be necessary, a university spokesman told the newspaper that the institution hopes that up to half of the job cuts will come from leaving open positions vacant.
Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the country, Rutgers University is also preparing for layoffs, the Star-Ledger reports.