Learning From Wazzu's Mistake

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Story Published: Nov 21, 2008 at 5:47 PM PST

By Sade Malloy

Ellensburg -- Central Washington University is about to hire a new president. This comes on the heels of a big mistake over at Wazzu where they hired a provost without checking his references. Action News wanted to see how Central is making sure they don't make the same mistake.

The process of finding a new president has gone on for about a year at Central Washington University, during that time Wazzu hired and then lost a provost.

He's now been moved to a professor position at Wazzu Tri-Cities.

After that blunder people are now paying closer attention to university hirings.

"Just to make sure that they are what they advertise," said Sid Morrison, board of trustees.

Action News has been told Central's board of trustees, presidential search committee, an outside search firm and the general public have all been included in the process.

The university posted candidate documents, resumes and committee minutes on their school's website.

To make sure all this information on the candidate resumes is true they've also put together phone bank teams to call up references , they also had a group of people visit the candidates at their current jobs.

"We tried to expose them to all sorts of different groups, different circumstances so that we can see how they interact in all circumstances," explains Wendy Bohrson, presidential search committee member.

The future president needs to be prepared to cut $12 million from Central's budget.

"Economic times don't affect the searches much as we will be looking for someone that has dealt with these problems of maintaining enrollment and maintaining students," said Sid Morrison, board of trustees.

Central wants to make sure their president doesn't end up as an overpaid professor.

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