Members of Western Kentucky University's Board of Regents and Presidential Search Committee meet in Nashville to discuss candidates for WKU's next president. By AARON MUDD/amudd@bgdailynews

NASHVILLE —The search for Western Kentucky University’s next president is narrowing with the current number of candidates under consideration dropping to less than five. 

Members of WKU’s Board of Regents and Presidential Search Committee met on Sunday in the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel’s Neely Room in a closed session to interview candidates for the job. The officials were joined by representatives from executive search firm Isaacson, Miller, which has been helping with consulting and recruiting candidates for the position. The group will meet again on Monday to continue the interviews. 

Before the meeting began, Search Committee Chair and Regent Phillip Bale said there will be two interviews on Sunday and two on Monday. 

“It’s a diverse group in terms of background experiences,” Bale said in an interview prior to the meeting. “It’s not as diverse a group as we did have before the number was winnowed down, but I think the board will have much to contemplate and think about as look (at) these individuals with their backgrounds and their experiences.” 

Bale said at this point the search is about finding the best fit for the university. 

“We’ve spent now over 10 months thinking, planning, meeting, having forums, developing our position profile, keep an eye on what’s going on in higher education nationally and in our state,” he said. “And through all that trying to formulate what we feel like are our major challenges, our opportunities and what sort of skill set our new president might best have to meet those challenges and take advantage of those opportunities. 

Bale said the plan remains to name a president by early March or earlier. He described the candidates as highly qualified. 

“The individuals left in my opinion will all be university presidents soon,” he said. “Only one of them will be president at Western Kentucky University, but these are highly qualified individuals who have other opportunities that they’re either currently looking at or will be looking at in the near future.” 

Bale declined to say whether any of the remaining candidates have a history with the university. 

“I’m not going to answer that one,” Bale said, adding he wanted to preserve confidentiality for the individuals. 

Bale said it hasn’t been discussed among the board whether finalists for the job should have to reveal their identities. 

“Whether that will be discussed over the next couple of days, I don’t know,” he said. “As we’ve previously stated, it was a recommendation of our consultant and in fact of all of our consultants that we interviewed that you are going to have a higher quality pool of candidates if you can ensure confidentiality.” 

He added the individuals are in high positions and many of them are involved in fundraising for their universities. Giving up their confidentiality would put them at risk, he said. 

“Our mission from day one is to try to find the highest quality, most qualified person that we can find for this job,” he said. “It was in that spirit that from the get go we announced that we would honor confidentiality for the individuals that required it.” 

No candidates were seen entering or exiting the front door of the Neely Room, which sits on the hotel’s second floor at the top of a set of stairs and at the end of two branching hall ways. Board members and other search officials were seated at a large square table in the meeting room and formed a U-shape around an empty chair where the candidate was to be seated. 

When Bale was asked whether candidates have been asked if they’d be willing to give up their confidentiality at the finalist level, he said it’s not a question that has been previously asked. 

“I think it’s worth noting that all of the candidates, even the ones that are no longer candidates, were told that confidentiality would be respected for those that required it,” Bale said. 

The gravity of the task isn’t lost on the board and those members more closely involved with the search, Bale said. 

“I’m excited. I think we’re all humbled by this task,” he said. “And we certainly all understand the importance and the gravity of trying to find the best fit and leader that we can in these turbulent times for higher education.” 

Before the meeting went into closed session, Board of Regents Chair Frederick Higdon told reporters that the closed session would continue until the early afternoon on Monday. 

— Follow education reporter Aaron Mudd on Twitter @BGDN_edbeat or visit bgdailynews.com.