Sen. Michael Baumgartner (R-Spokane) has proposed giving the legislature the ultimate control over the hiring of the presidents of Washington’s four-year public universities. Current law allows boards of trustees and regents to hire presidents. Baumgartner’s bill would require the Senate confirm presidential candidates.
It would also shield the documents created during a presidential search process from public disclosure. And it would exempt board of trustees and regents meetings related to presidential searches from open meetings laws.
During a Senate Higher Education Committee hearing on the bill this week, Baumgartner laid out his rationale, though he wasn’t present. His statement was read by Vancouver Republican Senator Lynda Wilson.
“Current state law mandates open meetings for all Regents’ meetings, including when hiring a president. It’s a suboptimal law because good candidates are hesitant to be considered in public. As a result, our regents are breaking the law by secretly making hiring decisions," read Baumgartner's statement. "We should change the law to exempt president searches from open meetings and to protect the public interest by subjecting hires to Senate confirmation.”
Paul Francis from the Council of Presidents argued against giving the Senate the final say. He says the current process works because it keeps politics as far away from presidential hires as possible.
On the issue of public scrutiny, Rowland Thompson from Allied Daily Newspapers of Washington argued that because university presidents have such clout, it’s important that the process of choosing them be open to the public.
“It is an extremely important process that that Board of Regents goes through when they hire that person and a matter of grave public concern when that happens," Thompson said. "It is a matter that should not be withheld from the Open Public Meetings Act and from open public records. The public has a right to understand how that process goes forward."