‘Leak’ by CSUN Chief Dismays Wayne State

When Cal State Northridge President Blenda J. Wilson announced late Tuesday that she was one of five finalists to become president of Wayne State University in Detroit, she stunned not only the CSUN campus but also Wayne State, where officials had planned to release all the candidates’ names simultaneously Wednesday.

Their annoyance surfaced Wednesday as it was learned that the Cal State Board of Trustees plans to reevaluate the way it chooses university presidents because of a similar news leak that frustrated a presidential search at Cal State San Bernardino this spring.

Any change in the process could delay the hiring of a permanent replacement for Wilson should she get the Michigan job. CSUN administrators are already in the midst of several major projects and the Cal State system is facing the loss of Chancellor Barry Munitz, who is leaving to head the Getty Trust.

When the story of Wilson’s status as a finalist appeared on the front page of some editions of The Times and other Los Angeles newspapers as well as the Detroit Free Press Wednesday morning, four of the eight members of Wayne State’s Board of Governors hadn’t been informed of who the finalists were, Wayne State officials said.

Only half the board serves on the 18-member presidential search committee.

“We were very surprised and disappointed that one name was leaked to the press in front of others,” said Elizabeth Hardy, chairwoman of the search committee and a member of the Board of Governors. “All the candidates knew that the decision would not be released to the board until 2 o’clock Eastern Standard Time.”

Hardy continued, “We would not want anyone within this community or any of our other four candidates to be left with the impression that the board has an internal favorite candidate, because that’s not the case.”

When asked if the early release of Wilson’s name might negatively affect her chances for the job, Hardy said: “I can’t speak for the other board members. I still have an open mind. I don’t know if [Wilson] is the one responsible for the leak and if so, for what reasons. That would make a difference to me.”

Bruce Erickson, CSUN’s director of public relations, said Wilson decided to send an e-mail message to the campus and contact the press only after a reporter from Detroit called to inquire about a rumor that Wilson might be a finalist.

“When it became clear that it was going to become public, she wanted the campus community and the community at large to hear it from her,” Erickson said. Wilson did not want the news to “be a matter of gossip or a leak out of Michigan,” he said.

Wilson has come under fire recently not only for eliminating four men’s sports programs at the school but for being off-campus when the drastic cuts were announced, leaving underlings to deal with the immediate fallout.

The teams may have been rescued, however. Swimming and soccer have been reinstated for one year thanks to pledges of private funds. Volleyball and baseball are also expected to get a one-year reprieve, paid for by $586,000 in state funds.

During a six-month search for a replacement for President David Adamany, the Wayne State committee had whittled a list of 151 nominees down to 51 semifinalists and then 5 finalists. Adamany, who announced in December that he would step down this year, also served as vice president for academic affairs at Cal State Long Beach from 1977 to 1980.

The other four finalists are:

* Jay Noren, a professor of health sciences at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

* Irvin Reid, president of Montclair State University in New Jersey.

* Edward Sheridan, provost and professor of psychology at the University of Missouri at Columbia.

* David Young, provost and professor of biology at Colorado State University.

While news of the leak had Wayne State officials aggrieved Wednesday, a similar problem during the search for a new president at the San Bernardino campus this spring is causing Cal State trustees to consider changing how they handle such searches.

At both institutions, the names of candidates are supposed to remain confidential until the list of finalists is announced. That way, the thinking goes, academics can apply for other jobs without disrupting their own institutions by alerting co-workers that they may be on the way out.

Currently, Cal State employs two panels to seek out new university presidents. The main search committee consists of three trustees and one member from each of several campus constituencies, including faculty, students and staff. The second panel is a less influential advisory committee made up of representatives from numerous campus groups.

The advisory panel’s primary purpose, Cal State officials said, is to interview the half-dozen or so semifinalists and make recommendations to the search committee, which chooses three or four finalists.

During the San Bernardino search, a member or members of the advisory panel leaked the names of the semifinalists to campus insiders and the news media, said CSU Trustee Ralph Pesqueira, who chaired the search committee.

“Because of that, we had a very strong candidate drop out, saying, ‘I was promised confidentiality until the finalists were named,’ ” Pesqueira said. “We had to really go like crazy to get the rest of the candidates to stay in because they were angry too.”

Albert Karnig, formerly provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of Wyoming, was named to the San Bernardino presidency in May.

While CSUN and Cal State system officials mulled their next moves Wednesday, a university employee and a community leader offered differing views of Wilson’s nearly five-year tenure at Northridge, which included shepherding the campus’ recovery from the massive damage of the Northridge earthquake.

CSUN men’s volleyball coach John Price said Wilson let the university down when she cut the sports teams.

“We needed her help on that issue,” Price said, “and we didn’t get it.”

But Steve Lew, vice president of Universal Studios Inc. and chair-elect of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn., said: “She’s done a great job for the institution and for the Valley. We would love to see her stay . . . but we wish her the best.”