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Logan • As Utah State University gears up for a new president, critics are questioning whether the state is transparent enough in choosing its higher education leaders.

Though the process is more open than it used to be, they say the public should know more about prospective leaders of state-funded institutions, the Logan Herald Journal reported.

Utah higher education leaders, though, say they need to keep some parts of the process private to attract top-shelf candidates who may not want their current employers to know they're looking for a new position.

The Board of Regents won't be releasing information about applicants hoping to replace retiring USU president Stan Albrecht until a 25-person search committee has winnowed hundreds of applications down to a few finalists.

The panel is now holding a series of public meetings to find out what people want to see in the replacement for Albrecht, who announced his retirement in February after 11 years in the top job.

The final three to five names will be made public, but the media will be barred from interviewing those people or attending campus visits made by the finalists. The state cites personnel issues as the reason for closing those meetings.

Joel Campbell, an associate professor of journalism at Brigham Young University, calls the restrictions heavy-handed.

"What are the Board of Regents afraid of?" he said. "Perhaps the public actually may get a chance to vet candidates and perhaps the media might actually fulfill its First Amendment role in our society."

Higher Education Commissioner Dave Buhler, though, said it wouldn't be fair for a candidate's statement to be published in a newspaper while they are doing private interviews with the regents.

"What we've tried to do is strike that balance and I think we have a very good balance right now," he said.

Salt Lake City-based media law attorney Jeff Hunt says the idea that getting the best candidates requires confidentiality is "a bunch of bunk."

"Everybody knows college presidents are always looking for the next job and making the shortlist can increase your worth at the place where you are," Hunt said. "This is a significant position of public trust."

While he doesn't necessarily think every single candidate's name should be public, Hunt said that reporters should be able to attend when the finalists visit campus.

"When the finalists come to visit, they should be expected to answer questions from the media so the process can have some accountability," said Hunt.

The presidential search process was completely closed until media started pushing to get the names of University of Utah presidential finalists in the 1990s. The board resisted until 2002, when it released names of the finalist for the new leader of what's now Utah Valley University.

Utah isn't as open as North Dakota, which is considered a gold standard for transparency. The state often holds forums with presidential candidates that are open to the public and the media.

"I think it's important to have everybody's input, everybody's support," said Billie Jo Lorius, a spokeswoman for the North Dakota University System, though she acknowledged the state's policy of releasing every candidate's names might deter some applicants.