Two vie for top post at OSU campus
Ex-legislator, Peace Corps official contenders to replace Jay Casbon
Published: March 11. 2007 4:00AM PST
Two finalists will compete this week for the top spot at Oregon State University-Cascades Campus during interviews that will largely be out of the public eye.
Diana Sloane, currently the country director of the Peace Corps in The Gambia, and Bryan Johnston, a Salem consultant and mediator and former Oregon state representative, will go through intensive interviews this week to replace OSU-Cascades leader Jay Casbon. Casbon had led the university since it opened in 2001 and resigned in July for personal reasons. He will serve through the end of this academic year.
A search committee consisting of 14 people from OSU's main campus in Corvallis, OSU-Cascades faculty and staff, business and community members, have been meeting since early fall to determine who should replace Casbon.
The position was posted in national publications and the committee received 43 strong applicants, said John Salzer, a member of the committee.
Unlike Casbon's hiring process, this one is happening largely behind closed doors for reasons that are unclear at this time.
When asked if there were specific characteristics the committee was seeking in a candidate, Salzer jokingly replied, "Yeah, somebody who could walk on water."
The replacement for the campus executive officer will face a litany of complexities, he said.
OSU-Cascades opened four days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The state economy tanked, and the school received only a fraction of the state help it had originally expected. Since then, the campus has been struggling for more state funding, but with limited success.
But at an Oregon University System board meeting on March 2, OSU President Ed Ray talked optimistically about expanding OSU-Cascades. He suggested the possibility of establishing a partnership with the city of Bend for Juniper Ridge, mentioning the potential for a stand-alone graduate program there.
Juniper Ridge is a 1,500-acre parcel in northeast Bend slated for residential, industrial and academic use. Bend city councilors have set aside 200 acres of that land for educational purposes - what they hope will be a four-year university. But no decisions have been made yet, and OSU officials have told the state board they do not envision relocating the entire branch campus to Juniper Ridge.
"Juniper (Ridge) is still up in the air, support from the state is diminishing, interest in enrollment is continuing to rise at the same time we're getting less public support," Salzer said. "The dilemma would be, how do we manage our growth that we want to have and at the same time stay afloat?"
According to state figures, 858 students have graduated from the branch campus since it opened in 2001. There were 495 total students attending in fall 2006, compared with 491 total students in fall 2005, according to numbers provided by the Oregon University System. The branch campus is a liberal arts college that has partnerships with the University of Oregon and OSU. Students who take lower-division classes at COCC can take upper-level classes and receive degrees from the participating schools.
The candidates
Sloane and Johnston both have very strong backgrounds that led the committee to narrow the search to them, Salzer said. Sloane's strength is in academia, while Johnston has experience in the political arena and is familiar with Oregon. Salzer could not say how much the position would pay.
"I think an important part of this position is partnering with the local schools, with Central Oregon Community College certainly, with the University of Oregon, with business and industry, with EDCO (Economic Development for Central Oregon)," Sloane said Saturday from her hotel room, where she had arrived after about 40 hours of traveling.
She said her experience with Los Rios, a district of four community colleges in Sacramento, gave her the chance to be involved with a variety of business and industry partnerships, which she could easily apply to her work at OSU-Cascades and COCC.
"We were doing a lot there with local schools to increase enrollment in the college-going population and a lot of work force development, so that the students coming out were well-prepared for the work force," she said. "And certainly that's an interest here as well.
She applied for the position so she could return to academics. She also spent much of her career in California, "so Oregon isn't that far, really, from where I've been in the past," she said.
Johnston, a former lawyer, said he applied to the position because he has experience in multiple areas that can help him run the branch campus successfully.
As a former state representative, he also has political savvy. Through serving as former interim president and other leadership roles at Willamette University in Salem, Johnston has experience in higher education administration. And his work as a mediator and facilitator have brought him in touch with the community.
"If a university's going to be successful, it's going to have to be effective in all three of those areas," he said.
The process
Sloane will interview Monday and Tuesday and Johnston will interview Thursday and Friday. The interview process for each will be similar, said Salzer, the selection committee member.
They will attend a presentation to faculty, staff and students at OSU-Cascades; and will meet with a slew of faculty, staff and top administrators in Bend and Corvallis.
The candidates will meet with Casbon, OSU provost Sabah Randhawa, and OSU president Ray, among others. On Monday, the OSU-Cascades board of advisers and OSU-Cascades foundation board will meet Sloane from 4:45 to 5:45 p.m., Salzer said.
He said he did not know why there is such a lack of public input in this round of interviews, which is a different course from Casbon's interviewing process.
"Most of this has been directed by people in Corvallis," he added.
Casbon said he was present for several public forums during his interviewing process.
"People had the chance to ask questions both formally and informally, which was very helpful to me," he said.
He said he was not sure why the search committee is being less public about its selection process this time.
The selection committee has been meeting since early fall to decide on a candidate, said Salzer, who also heads the OSU-Cascades Foundation.
The committee selected a third candidate who will be interviewed if neither Sloane nor Johnston are picked. Salzer declined to give that candidate's name.
He said ultimately, the college needs a visionary who can deal with ambiguity, someone who can manage to rally both the community and the state around the branch campus.
"So it's a great challenge," he said, "and a great opportunity at the same time."
Monique Balascan be reached at 617-7831 or at mbalas@bendbulletin.com.
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