Senate Bill 282, Higher Education Hiring Amendments, Sen. Chris Wilson, R-Logan • The selection process for presidents of Utah’s taxpayer-funded universities today is marginally public, with the names of finalists for these positions made public so there can be input and vetting by the public. Sen. Wilson’s bill would undo that, moving the entire process behind closed doors.
These are among the most prestigious and well-compensated positions in the state, earning up to $1 million a year in taxpayer dollars. By law, the process is intended to yield a “strong and diverse pool” of candidates, but there is no way for taxpayers to know if that is the case if the name of only one finalist is ever known.
The current crop of university presidents have all been selected under the process that makes the finalists public and there is no evidence that the process has been hampered or that the outcome has suffered.
The modicum of transparency now in effect is the result of a compromise between stakeholders intended to strike a balance between the privacy of the candidates and the public’s right to know how their tax dollars are being put to use. This outcome benefits from a process that has a small amount of daylight, not hidden within a secretive conclave. The Utah Transparency Project opposes SB282.
The bill was introduced on Feb. 18 and has been assigned to the Senate Education Committee for a hearing.
The Utah Media Coalition offers real-time assessments of legislation that could either increase or decrease public access to government records.
