Search for SJSU president narrowed down to four candidates

Names scheduled to be released by Friday

By: Kevin Rand

Posted: 4/24/08

The presidential selection committee has narrowed San Jose State's search for an administrative leader down to four final candidates.

Pat Lopes-Harris, the university's media relations specialist, said a list of the candidates' names is scheduled to be released from the Chancellor's office by Friday.

Meanwhile, current SJSU President Don Kassing is serving the remaining months of his term, which ends with the Spring semester, while the selection process will be finalized.

The four candidates' first official public appearances are scheduled for May 5 through May 8, during which each of the prospects will spend a day on campus, Harris said.

Open public forums with each candidate are also scheduled for the four days from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. in the Engineering Building, Room 189. Candidate receptions on each of the days are planned to take place from 5:40 to 6:40 p.m., with the exception being Wednesday's 4:45 to 5:45 p.m. reception, according to an e-mail from Academic Senate Co-Chair Judith Lessow-Hurley.

The selection of a new president will mark the end of Kassing's tenure, which began August 2004, as the head of SJSU administration. Kassing entered office as acting president, replacing then-newly elected President Paul Yu, who abruptly resigned for health reasons.

Kassing's legacy as SJSU president is likely to be marked by the erection and completion of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library - a project on which the university worked with the city of San Jose - along with the building of the Campus Village student and faculty residences. Most recent, however, is Kassing's decision to suspend all blood drives on campus - an act in defiance of an FDA policy that prohibits men who have had sex with other men from donating blood but in accordance with SJSU's nondiscrimination policy.

Read the Spartan Daily in print and online for further updates on the presidential selection process, beginning with the release of the four official candidates' names.