Ex-SEMO presidents fail to make short list

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Two former presidents of Southeast Missouri State University didn't make the short list in the search for a new leader at the University of Tennessee.

Bill Stacy and Dale Nitzschke were on a list of 15 semifinalists for the UT presidency last week but were not among the top five announced Wednesday.

The semifinalists were selected from a list of 100 presidential nominations by the Tennessee university's search consultant and an advisory council made up of faculty, students, administrators and alumni.

Stacy, Southeast president from 1979 to 1989 and former dean of the graduate school, is now chancellor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Nitzschke was president at Southeast from July 1996 to July 1999 and is currently a consultant for the university.

Other candidates being recruited privately may also be added to the list in January to be reviewed by a search committee.

Finalists will be voted on by the board of trustees in early March.

The five semifinalists include Guy Baily, provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of Texas, San Antonio; Stephen Lehmkuhle, vice president for academic affairs for the University of Missouri; Stanley R. Liberty, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Bradley University in Peoria, Ill.; C. Warren Neel, Tennessee state commissioner of finance and administration; Marlene I. Strathe, provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of Northern Colorado.