Boise State University could have its next president by the start of fall classes — as the search resumes on a “very compressed timeline,” and largely outside the public eye.

“The search is being reopened,” the presidential search committee said in a Monday morning email to the Boise State community.

The search for a president at Idaho’s largest university — one of the most high-priced and high-profile public jobs in the state — has been uneven at best. The president’s job first came open nearly a year ago. The search has been on hold since October — and a hastily passed state law will now move the process almost entirely behind closed doors.

The search will resume shortly and could culminate while most students and staff are off campus for the summer.

• The recruitment and application period is expected to run through late March. “New candidates will be able to apply, and previous applicants will be invited to renew their interest,” the search committee wrote.
• The committee hopes to review applications and conduct a first round of interviews in early April.
• The committee hopes to schedule a second round of interviews with semifinalists in late April or early May. “During the semifinalist stage, representatives of faculty, staff, students, and university leadership will participate in small-group conversations with candidates and share feedback with the search committee,” the committee wrote. “Participants in those sessions will be asked to sign a confidentiality agreement applicable to the interview process only in order to support a candid exchange of ideas and protect the privacy of candidates who may currently hold leadership positions at other institutions.”
• After the search committee finishes its work, the State Board of Education hopes to publicly name a sole finalist for the vacancy in mid-June. Since that announcement would occur during summer break, the board said it “is exploring ways to engage the campus community, including off-contract faculty,” during this phase of the process.

Under a new state law — which went into effect immediately in February — the State Board is required to name only one presidential finalist. The board must wait at least 10 business days before making a hire, a cooling-off period designed to allow some public vetting of the finalist.

Previously, state law required the board to announce five finalists, a field that traditionally came to campuses to meet with students, staff and faculty. The State Board had used this same process to fill previous vacancies, including, most recently, an Idaho State University search in 2023. But State Board leaders said the disclosure requirements had stymied the Boise State search because promising candidates didn’t want to be named publicly.

The search committee is largely unchanged from the small group assembled last March, days after Marlene Tromp accepted the president’s job at the University of Vermont.

Holdovers include State Board members David Turnbull and Kurt Liebich; Lisa Bostaph, a Boise State professor of criminal justice; Lisa Grow, CEO of Idaho Power; Bobbi-Jo Meuleman, CEO of the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce; Mike Reynoldson, vice president of public affairs at Blue Cross of Idaho; and Bruce Mohr, chairman of the Boise State University Foundation.

The State Board is adding two other committee members: Boise State interim CFO Stacy Pearson and Scott Gatzemeier, corporate vice president of front end U.S. expansion at Micron Technology Inc.

But one name is absent. Interim Boise State President Jeremiah Shinn will no longer serve on the committee.

“When the search began, it was not expected that (Shinn) would be carrying full presidential responsibilities for this duration while also participating in the search process,” the search committee wrote.

Shinn has served as interim president since May.