Oregon State University drafts presidential search timeline

CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP) — Oregon State University’s Board of Trustees staff outlined a preliminary plan on Friday to have a new president chosen by May 2022.

The board is hoping to manage a process and presidential hire that can build trust after a scandal forced out the previous president of Oregon’s largest university, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.

OSU’s previous president, F. King Alexander, resigned in March following criticism of the way he handled sexual misconduct allegations at Louisiana State University. The current head of OSU is interim president Becky Johnson who was elevated from her vice president role at OSU-Cascades in April.

In the lead-up to Alexander’s resignation, many members of the OSU community expressed a lack of trust in the Board of Trustees — the governing body responsible for choosing the university’s president — and in the hiring process itself.

Earlier this year, the board affirmed that it would hold an open search process, which was not done last time.

Board Chair Rani Borkar next will put together a committee to help recommend the search firm that will find presidential candidates and will lead a process to select a presidential search committee. That committee will be in charge of selecting and interviewing semi-finalist candidates and summarizing community feedback.

Both the search firm selection committee and the presidential search committee will include various members of the campus community.