Finalists chosen in Mizzou presidential search

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The search for the next University of Missouri president is in the home stretch.

After two rounds of confidential candidate interviews in St. Louis and Kansas City, university curators again convened behind closed doors Friday -- this time to narrow the prospects to a group of finalists.

Those finalists will head to St. Louis next week for interviews with a 19-member advisory panel of professors, students and alumni from the university system's four campuses, spokesman Scott Charton said.

The flurry of meetings comes amid growing speculation and published reports about the candidacy of Rep. Kenny Hulshof, a local resident who received his bachelor's degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Curators have consistently declined to discuss the names of prospects interested in succeeding former president Elson Floyd, who left in April for a similar job at Washington State University.

Board Chairman Don Walsworth, who also heads the search committee, did not return a telephone call Friday from The Associated Press seeking comment. Walsworth and other members of the 10-person committee met in a telephone conference for about 90 minutes Friday afternoon.

Hulshof and his congressional staff have also declined to respond to inquiries about his interest in the job, including on Friday.

Curators hope to name a new president over the summer. In Floyd's absence, Columbia resident Gordon Lamb, a former university president at Northeastern Illinois, is temporarily in charge of the university system.