OUS to choose interim PSU pres. by early June

An interim replacement for outgoing Portland State President Daniel Bernstine will likely be chosen at an Oregon University System (OUS) meeting in early June, according to Ryan Hagemann, the OUS board secretary.

The meeting to select an interim president will be held on June 7 and 8 at the Clackamas Oregon Institute of Technology’s Metro Center. The OUS State Board of Higher Education will use a newly adopted procedure that would eliminate the involvement of three board members in selecting the interim president.

Jim Francesconi, who is heading up the search to permanently fill the president position, stated last week that it could take as many as nine months to find the right person to fill the president’s job permanently.

Francesconi said that he felt it would take that much time to find a person who could pick up and continue the work that Bernstine has done, someone who could immediately offer his or her expertise and knowledge to the campus.

“Dan [Bernstine] has made some very significant achievements with PSU over the years,” Francesconi said. “We need to find someone who can carry that work forward.”

The board met for a phone conference Wednesday morning and agreed to make a structural change in the way an interim president or an acting president will be chosen in the future.

Now, according to the new procedure, OUS Chancellor George Pernsteiner will recommend a candidate for the board to consider, rather than involving other board members.

The new procedure would make it easier to select a replacement if a future president should have to take time off for unplanned absences, a process that did not exist previously.

The change in procedure would also make choosing an interim more like the selection process for an actual president, a process that was revised in June 2006, Hagemann said.

Diane Saunders, OUS director of communications, said that the change was not a significant one.

“This was more a housekeeping thing than anything else,” she said.

The June board meeting, Hagemann said, will allow time for board members to discuss candidate strengths and weaknesses. Meeting in June would also allow time for a special executive session to be held, if the need was there, Hagemann said.

Hagemann said he was not sure if the name of the candidate the chancellor will ask the board to consider for interim president will be released on the OUS website before the actual meeting.

“In the past, we have identified the name of a candidate,” Hagemann said, “so in all likelihood we will release that name.”

Neither Francesconi nor Hagemann could say whether the interim president would also be eligible to apply for the permanent position of president.

Bernstine will depart on June 16 for his new position as president and CEO of the Law School Admissions Council in Newtown, Pa.