Face the State Staff Report
The University of Colorado announced Monday that CU Boulder Chancellor G.P. "Bud" Peterson is Georgia Tech University's sole finalist to serve as its next president. Should Peterson move on, this will be the first time in CU history that CU's president will appoint the next chancellor without approval from the Board of Regents.
Peterson has served as Chancellor of CU Boulder since July 2006 and, along with the chancellors from the Denver and Colorado Springs campuses, is the highest ranking university official under President Bruce Benson. Peterson's hiring process involved six months of candidate screenings and interviews by an appointed search committee. At the time he was also the sole finalist and ultimately appointed by the regents. He was offered an annual salary of $330,000.
After Peterson's appointment, then-President Hank Brown and the Board of Regents changed the hiring process for the chancellor. Instead of final approval by Regents, the president now holds the power to hire and fire chancellors for all three of CU's campuses. President Bruce Benson is likely to assemble a search committee if Peterson needs to be replaced and will make the final appointment without approval from the regents.
"The board has hired President Benson and the chancellor position is now under his authority," said CU Regent Tom Lucero. "Now, ultimately the president is responsible for the individual he hires."
Under its own university rules, Georgia Tech must wait at least two weeks from the announcement of final candidates to appoint a new president.
"By law the board cannot take any action any earlier than 14 days following the announcement of a finalist," said Georgia Tech Regent John Millsaps. "The earliest date the board could act would be on February 25th."
CU Vice President for University Relations Ken McConnellogue said that CU offficials have not yet begun looking for a replacement. "We are letting Georgia Tech's process run its course before CU gets out there publicly [to search for candidates]. Obviously should the need come up, we've done these searches before and have a prescribed process for that so we will be prepared for any contingency."