NIC search is still stumbling
North Idaho College is missing a prime opportunity to build a stronger bond with a skeptical community.
In our view, the process North Idaho College is using to select its next president is being mishandled. Late last week, a panel of 22 search committee members — half from the public sector, half from the campus — forwarded six presidential finalists' names to NIC's trustees.
Six, in this case, is a magic number. Idaho courts have determined that in public searches for high-profile positions like this one, once the field of applicants has been narrowed to five finalists, those five people's names become a matter of public record. In other words, courts determined that the public should know who the five top candidates are so they can do their own research and form their own opinions. The clearest way to sidestep the intent of the law is to say you have more than five finalists.
Sunday, trustees took those six names into closed session and eventually emerged with their public list of finalists: two of them. On Monday, they announced that the two are Ronald Kraft and Leah Bornstein. The good news for the public is that they'll have two opportunities today to meet Kraft and Bornstein. The bad news is that even if there was no intent to circumvent the courts' intended process, there is every appearance that's exactly what the trustees are doing.
An NIC spokesman said Monday that the other four candidates are not out of the running, which means there are still six finalists. Two names you know. Four, they've decided, you should not know. We won't speculate on why that is, but we will say that the refusal to disclose smacks of something unsavory.
Recent history supports the notion that many in the community feel disenfranchised in the real role of decision-making at the college.
Our hope still is that the next NIC president will be the bridge builder both the college and the community need and deserve. If that person fails, we might never know if someone better was standing in the shadows.