Presidential Hiring Bytes

North Dakota’s State Board of Higher Education has approved a new policy that requires presidential-search committees to name at least three finalists or risk having their recommendations rejected, the Associated Press reports. The AP notes that the change may have been prompted, in part, by the recent search for a new president of the University of North Dakota, in which only a single name — Robert Kelley, who is the current president — was passed on to the board.

The state’s higher-education board is also supporting a proposal that would keep the names of presidential candidates confidential until the semifinalist stage of a search, the AP reports. Applicants’ names are now public information. The board hopes that such a measure, if approved by the legislature, would entice more people to apply for the jobs.

Meanwhile, Mississippi’s coordinating board for higher education has named Mark Keenum, a U.S. Department of Agriculture undersecretary, as its top pick for president of Mississippi State University, The Commercial Dispatch reports (see a related post).