CHOICES FOR SEMO

The presidential search committee at Southeast Missouri State University has done its job. Through a nationwide search, it narrowed a field of 120 candidates to three.

The campus and community will have an opportunity to evaluate William C. Merwin, Dale F. Nitzschke and G. Warren Smith II firsthand when the candidates visit the campus in April.

All three have extensive experience in higher education. Merwin is president of the State University of New York College at Potsdam. Nitzschke is an educational consultant but previously was president of the University of New Hampshire at Durham and Marshall University at Huntington, W.Va. Smith is a professor at Southeastern Louisiana University at Hammond and is a former president of that school. Each man has his own strengths, and each would bring different ideas to the campus. All three have faced campus challenges.

This system of announcing the finalists and bringing them to town worked well for Cape Girardeau in hiring its city manager. This process gives students, faculty, staff, public and regents an opportunity to build a consensus on the best candidate during a series of open forums. A new president may be named as early as April 23.

Search committee members feel it was well worth the money to hire a Washington, D.C., consultant to assist with the process. The fact they have arrived at these three top-notch finalists in short order seems to reinforce that point. Although Dr. Kala Stroup left in the end of August, the search committee's deliberations didn't begin until well into the fall.

The open forums will give the finalists a chance to experience the community and the community a chance to size up the finalists. That is why local participation in the forums is so critical.

Choosing a president is a challenging task. The president sets a tone and direction for the future of the university. In turn, the university directly affects the education and economics of the region. The quality of these candidates speaks well for the university's reputation and its future.