Are secret searches truly necessary?

LSU Board of Supervisors member Blake Chatelain, who chaired the presidential search committee, on Monday defended the secretive search for LSU’s next leader, saying the process helped them identify the best candidate: California State University Long Beach President F. King Alexander. The argument in favor of secretive searches tends to be that the best candidates often don’t even apply in an open search, fearing that not being picked will hurt their careers and their relationships with current employers. “That is a fiction created by the search consultants,” says LSU Faculty Senate President Kevin Cope. “Every candidate who has applied at LSU has, if exposed, gotten a raise. Every LSU administrator who has sought employment elsewhere has not been impaired and has also gotten either incentives or a raise.” Cope says it’s difficult to say whether Alexander is the best candidate when the list of applicants is not available. LSU student Andrea Gallo, who is editor-in-chief of The Daily Reveille, released a statement today calling for LSU to seek an opinion from Louisiana Attorney General James “Buddy” Caldwell as to whether the university’s refusal to release the names of candidates for a public position is legal. Gallo’s attorney, Scott Sternberg of New Orleans, has written the LSU System requesting leaders seek the opinion on the decision to contract with a third-party consultant and withhold the names of applicants. Sternberg is giving the university seven days to respond before legal action is taken, according to the statement. —David Jacobs