Idaho’s highest-profile job search is looking more like a search-and-rescue operation.
On Thursday, a State Board of Education-appointed committee recommended “extending” the search for Boise State University’s next president.
There is no new timetable. Before even resuming the actual process, the committee wants the State Board to review “both the approach and scope of the search,” working with Russell Reynolds Associates, the national firm that has a $155,280 contract to help find a new president.
It’s tough to read Thursday’s announcement as anything but an admission that things aren’t going well. Six months in — after a series of closed meetings and clandestine interviews — the search appears bogged down. The rumor mill, meanwhile, has been churning right along, creating its own renewable energy.
All of this leaves the state’s largest four-year university in a state of suspended limbo, save for a string of high-profile departures. While Boise State staff, faculty and students are waiting to see what happens next, several top administrators have left campus.
Uncertainty can take a toll.
Thursday’s news, a stark turnaround, figures to feed this undercurrent of uncertainty.
In March, after Marlene Tromp accepted the president’s job at the University of Vermont, the State Board said it wanted to move quickly. It swiftly assembled an eight-member search committee, which met with campus stakeholder groups, took input in person and in writing, and began the vetting process.
Most of this happened behind closed doors, with search committee members signing a nondisclosure agreement. But the State Board’s limited public announcements projected the image of a process that was humming along smoothly.
On July 21, the State Board said it had received 42 applications for the job — and while the board kept the application window open, spokeswoman Marissa Morrison said the search committee “was pleased with the strength of the applicant pool.”
At the board’s Aug. 20 meeting, board member David Turnbull said he and board President Kurt Liebich had spent the preceding two days in face-to-face candidate interviews. Turnbull, the board’s point person on the search, indicated that the board would soon announce a list of five finalists and begin scheduling campus visits and open forums.
The informal goal was to schedule campus visits — the public-facing phase of the search — in September or October.
September came and went with silence.
October kicked off with a thud.
“The committee has conducted an extensive national search to identify candidates who possess the qualifications and vision to lead Boise State University into its next chapter,” the search committee, including Turnbull and Liebich, said in a letter to the Boise State campus community Thursday morning. “While the search process generated significant interest and qualified candidates, the committee does not, at this time, have five such finalists to present to the Board for consideration.”
Gov. Brad Little is comfortable with the delay, and the reset in the process. “(He) has confidence in the search committee members, and he supports the committee’s recommendations,” spokeswoman Emily Callihan said Thursday.
There’s some critical wording in Thursday’s announcement: the language about finding five finalists.
Under state law, the State Board can accept applications for presidential openings in confidence. But then the board must publicly name five finalists. If this doesn’t happen, the board must release all applicants’ names.
At the Aug. 20 board meeting, Liebich and board Executive Director Jennifer White both described the law as an impediment. Would-be candidates — especially presidents at other universities — don’t want to be publicly outed as a job hunter, when they have only a 20% chance of getting hired.
“Folks put a lot at risk when they indicate their interest,” White said at that meeting. “There’s good reason for this (law) to be revisited.”
But this law isn’t new, and the State Board has operated under it before. Let’s review Idaho’s last president’s search.
In June 2023, Kevin Satterlee abruptly announced that he was retiring from the top job at Idaho State University. The State Board named finalists in November 2023. The board hired Robert Wagner a month later, and he began work at Idaho State in January 2024.
Again, this was largely a behind-the-scenes process. But the board managed to name five finalists and hire a successor in six months.
While the Boise State search has lurched past the six-month mark, several top administrators have left campus:
- Chief financial and operating officer Alicia Estey followed Tromp to the University of Vermont, for a job as chief financial officer and vice president for finance.
- Provost John Buckwalter left for the University of Central Florida’s job as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.
- Leslie Durham, a 24-year Boise State veteran, left her job as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, taking the provost’s job at Weber State University.
- When White took the State Board’s top job in April, she stepped down as Boise State’s assistant vice president for finance and operations and senior counsel for government relations.
- Peter Risse followed White to State Board offices last week, taking over as administrator of the state’s Division of Career-Technical Education. Risse had been Boise State’s director for government and industry relations; he and White had been the university’s lobbying team during the 2025 legislative session.
On the one hand, the next Boise State president will have plenty of chances to create his or her inner circle. But on the other hand, these are a lot of important jobs to fill, and in short order.
Isaac Celedon, who is serving his second year as president of the Associated Students of Boise State University, said he was initially concerned about the turnover. But on Thursday, he said he was confident in the university’s interim leadership. He also said he isn’t shocked, or alarmed, about the extended president’s search.
“I trust the process,” Celedon told Idaho EdNews. “I would rather have it be a good process than a rushed process.”
Boise State history professor Erik Hadley also isn’t pressing the panic button about the campus churn.
“It’s really early to say, as we’re all still settling into our new roles,” Hadley, president of Boise State’s faculty Senate, said in an email to EdNews Wednesday. “Speaking personally, I feel very supported by our interim leadership.”
The search committee’s letter also struck a confident tone.
“Boise State remains in capable hands,” the committee wrote. “The university’s current leadership team is providing stability and continuity during this transition, and the committee is confident in their ability to continue advancing Boise State’s mission while the search is ongoing.”
Still, a lot of external pressure is falling on Boise State’s administration, and it’s not going away while the State Board is shopping for a new president.
Boise State took a $4 million hit from a midyear budget cut, which Gov. Brad Little announced in August and made permanent in September. Boise State was asked to draw up scenarios for future cuts that could approach $8.1 million. Meanwhile, Boise State and its sister institutions have the sensitive, and labor-intensive job of implementing a far-reaching new state law that seeks to stamp out campus diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
In the short term, this work falls to Jeremiah Shinn, who was named interim president in April. The State Board has said Shinn, Boise State’s vice president for student affairs and enrollment management, is not seeking the president’s job on a long-term basis.
Shinn could not be reached for comment this week on the president’s search and the administrative turnover. Spokeswoman Stephany Galbreaith said Shinn was traveling this week. He represented Boise State on the University of Vermont campus, where Tromp was formally installed as president in a ceremony Tuesday.
So we know where Tromp has landed, and we know where Shinn was this week. The whereabouts of Tromp’s successor are pretty much anybody’s guess.
Kevin Richert writes a weekly analysis on education policy and education politics. Look for his stories each Thursday.
This article was written by Kevin Richert of Idaho Education News.