Ex-Southeast presidents looking at UT

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Two former presidents of Southeast Missouri State University are semifinalists in the search for a new leader at the University of Tennessee.

According to a story from Friday's Knoxville News-Sentinel, Bill Stacy and Dale Nitzschke are on a list of 15 semifinalists for the UT presidency.

That group had been 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 currently holds the post of university consultant, in charge of raising funds for the proposed River Campus.

The 25-member advisory council ranked each candidate last week, and a list of the top five candidates is expected to be released this week.

Other candidates, recruited privately, may also be added to the list this week to be reviewed by a search committee. Finalists will be voted on by the board of trustees in early March.