As the reign of Chancellor James Moeser wanes with the passing days, the chancellor search committee is nearing the time when it needs to narrow down the pool of applicants to a group of finalists for the position, leaving us wondering who those intrepid souls might be.
But they're not telling. And we're just going to have to wait.
The search committee made the decision to hold the proceedings in closed session, keeping the identities of the hopefuls under wraps until a candidate has been chosen.
This decision has left some feeling excluded from the process. Unfortunately, while it does leave us out of the loop, the closed approach is actually in the University's best interest.
This is not the first time UNC has been tight-lipped about such matters. Moeser was also selected in a closed-door process back in 2000. Many other universities also use the same method.
The selling point behind the closed-door process is that it encourages more high-profile candidates to toss their names into the hat because of the promise of anonymity.
And since we want the best candidate possible to lead UNC, that's pretty crucial.
Many candidates are sitting presidents, chancellors, provosts and deans at other universities, and if it becomes public that they are pursuing employment at another school and they don't get the job, it could damage their relations with their current universities.
However, it's exactly those people that we want to be considering for the job. Looking only at people in the market for a new job severely limits us.
And even though UNC is a high-profile name, some of the top candidates only will be coaxed into applying if the anonymity clause is in place.
Despite the secrecy, however, it's still important for the public, including students, faculty, staff, alumni and town officials, to have their input.
The search committee held several public forums last semester for that very reason.
And while we'd like to put our two cents in on the final candidate, we'd rather have the quality applicant pool and let the administration do the choosing.
The time for public input was at the beginning of the search, to help the committee shape its focus and define the types of candidates to pursue.
We'll have no real way of knowing whether they considered our input or not until we see the final product.
Until then, we'll just have to trust the administration. After all, we do on most other decision regarding the University.
