NSC search continues minus one candidate

Monday, July 22, 2002 | 9:28 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

Nevada State College's search committee will continue its search for a president with one less candidate.

Presidential hopeful Robert Hoover withdrew after considerable pressure from Idaho leaders to stay as president of the University of Idaho.

"Our loss is Idaho's gain," said Jane Nichols, Nevada's higher education chancellor. "With Idaho being the Gem State, they realized they should not lose one of its gems."

Hoover was one of six semifinalists for the presidency, which pays up to $200,000 a year. He makes $161,345 annually at the University of Idaho.

Nevada Regent Mark Alden, chairman of the search committee, said that he did not plan to replace Hoover with a runner-up semi-finalist but would hold interviews for the remaining five candidates on June 20.

The candidates who remain are Kerry Romesburg of Utah Valley State College in Orem, Utah; Melvin Hall, dean and executive director of Northern Arizona University's Center for Excellence in Education; Thomas Stauffer, an adviser for Higher Education Advisory International in San Francisco; Bill Gray, campus executive officer and dean of Washington State University at Spokane; and Les Wong, vice president of academic affairs at Valley City State University in Valley City, N.D.

Hoover made plans to leave his position in Idaho after its Gov. Dirk Kempthorne and legislators reduced state support for higher education in the 2002-03 budget by $23 million, or 10 percent.

Hoover told an Idaho newspaper that his decision was prompted not so much by the cut, but by the prospect of starved budgets in the future. He met with the governor on Friday and changed his mind.