5 finalists selected for top job at SLCC

The list of finalists in this latest search for a president at Salt Lake Community College includes a woman and a black man.

The State Board of Regents on Wednesday announced the names of five out-of-state finalists for the job vacated in 2003 by H. Lynn Cundiff, who left for the private sector.

In May 2003, retired SLCC administrator Judd Morgan agreed to be interim president during a search that was supposed to take six months to a year.

"We've been searching for just the right person and wanted to make sure we brought the regents some real choices," said Rich Kendell, state commissioner of higher education.

One search was scrapped, and it was announced last January that there would be another "continuation" of the present search. The most recent delay was attributed, in part, to salary issues, according to regents President Nolan Karras.

The current starting salary for the SLCC top post is $142,800, but that figure will be negotiated before the next president begins work, according to regents spokeswoman Amanda Covington. When the regents meet in June, the subject of all presidential salaries is expected to be on the agenda.

Kendell said regents will give him parameters for working out a salary with the new SLCC president. "The salary we listed," he said, "is negotiable."

SLCC's five presidential finalists are:

• Cynthia A. Bioteau, vice president for instruction and chief academic officer of Forsyth Technical Community College in North Carolina.

• Terry Alan Calaway, president of Central Arizona College in Coolidge, Ariz.

• Mark G. Edelstein, president of Diablo Valley College in California.

• Zachary R. Hodges, president of Houston Community College-Northwest in Texas.

• Irving Pressley McPhail, chancellor of the Community College of Baltimore County in Maryland.

Kendell said the probability is "very high" that the next SLCC president will come from the group of five. The SLCC search is considered by Kendell as the most "pressing" among three current searches because it has been the longest in development.

Regents are expected to meet in a closed executive session on May 23 to interview the candidates. The board has the option to hold a public meeting that day to announce a new president or to reconvene at a later date.

Finalists in this search were selected from a field of 63 candidates from 30 states and two foreign countries.

The only other black to serve as president of a state-funded institution was Grace Jones, who led the College of Eastern Utah from 1996 to 2001. Weber State University current President F. Ann Millner is the only other woman to lead a public postsecondary institution in Utah. Women have filled interim president posts at the University of Utah and Utah Valley State College.

With the recent hiring of presidents at the U. and Utah State University, the remaining presidential vacancies include Dixie State College and the Utah College of Applied Technology.

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E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com