A committee formed to find a director for the Arkansas Department of Higher Education voted Wednesday to interview interim Director Shane Broadway and Arizona higher-education administrator Thomas Anderes.
Most members in the conference-call meeting said they supported hiring Broadway, and they questioned whether Anderes would be interested in the position once he learned that Arkansas’ higher-education leader serves at the will of the governor.
Voters will select term-limited Gov. Mike Beebe’s replacement in the 2014 general election, and committee members said they couldn’t predict whether a new governor would favor a change of leadership in the agency.
“Why would you want to come to a job that may or may not be here in 14 or 15 months?” Arkansas State University System President Charles Welch said.
Broadway was favored by higher-education leaders and Beebe to take the role before some lawmakers questioned if he met legislative requirements, which called for “experience on a campus of higher education.”
The Legislature has since redrafted the requirements, and the Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board re-advertised the position, drawing 20 candidates, including Broadway.
Broadway, a former Democratic state lawmaker and one-time lieutenant governor candidate, has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Arkansas State University-Jonesboro. He has worked in economic development.
“My personal feeling is we don’t need to fix something that isn’t broken,” Welch said of keeping Broadway as leader of the agency.
The committee, made up of college and university leaders and members of the state’s Higher Education Coordinating Board, will eventually make a recommendation to the full board for approval.
Committee members voted to use web-conferencing software to interview Anderes, who many called the only other applicant they would consider for the role.
Anderes’ resume states he has a doctorate in higher-education administration from the University of Connecticut, where he wrote a dissertation on budgeting formulas.
He is the former president of the Arizona Board of Regents with other administrative experience in Wisconsin, Texas, Oregon, Nevada, Connecticut and Wyoming, according to his resume.
Anderes announced in 2012 that he would not seek a contract extension at the end of his three-year term as president of the board of regents, according to a news release on an Arizona state government website, which quoted him as saying he “appreciate[s] the board’s support of my leadership.”
The Arkansas department has been without a permanent leader since Jim Purcell left to lead Louisiana’s higher-education efforts in February 2011.
Coordinating board member Kaneaster Hodges of Newport, the chairman of the search committee, has said it is difficult for Arkansas to attract quality candidates because of the relatively low salary and a higher-education system that leaves most of the day-to-day decision-making on the campuses.
Purcell’s starting salary in Louisiana was $275,000, which is $86,000 more than he earned in Arkansas.
Arkansas, Pages 10 on 09/26/2013