Searching again for a college president

Our Opinion

Friday, Nov. 6, 2009

Now the trustees of St. Mary's College of Maryland have to figure out where they go next.

Their methodical search for a new president of the college disintegrated last month. Early this year a search firm was hired and more than 100 candidates applied. Four finalists were chosen. Each spent several days at the college, meeting with students, faculty and other members of the surrounding community. In the end, none of the four was chosen and the trustees announced the search will continue.

By now it's pretty clear that there will be no new president at the college during this academic year. The goal instead seems to be to have someone in place before next fall's semester.

At this point this is not a crisis. The former president of the college, Maggie O'Brien, has already stepped aside. She's on administrative leave and will return to the college as a professor coordinating the college's study abroad program at Oxford next fall. The college is in the hands of capable caretakers. Provost Larry Vote is now acting president, a role he also filled before the trustees settled on O'Brien in 1996.

But the trustees must get it right this next time. A lot depends on it. The college needs a clear leader to attract faculty and set an agenda. And most critically it needs someone who can establish the political connections to keep funding coming to the college during difficult times.

St. Mary's College has rightly earned a place near the top of higher education ratings lists for offering a top-notch liberal arts education at an affordable price. As a public college, it has been well served by an arrangement that keeps it separate from the University System of Maryland. It has its own board of trustees, its own identity and in the past has benefited from that in terms of funding and attention from the state government.

But it's a precarious position as well. The cost to students has been creeping up at a faster rate than at the state's other public colleges, where tuition has been frozen for four years.

The president of St. Mary's College is the face of the college to governors and legislators in Annapolis, where decisions are made that can drastically affect the college's funding. All college presidents must be fundraisers, but the onus is particularly heavy on the president of St. Mary's College, a small school that must make its way with a combination of private and public funding.

So if after their first search the St. Mary's College trustees couldn't agree on a new president, what makes a suitable candidate? Perhaps a combination of characteristics not found in any of the four finalists. It is not entirely clear what happened because the discussions all took place in closed session, but this much we know: Some of the trustees favored a finalist who was a former congressman with political skills they felt could be helpful to the college. Others were looking for someone with an academic background, college administrative experience and a less polarizing public career.

Now the trustees must heal the rift and try again. A cooling-off period is fine, but the search deserves the full and focused attention of all the trustees this time. It's the most important decision most of them will make in this role.