The University of Washington said today it expects to name its final choice for president on Monday.

Listed on the agenda for a Monday morning meeting of the UW’s Board of Regents is an executive session to “evaluate the qualifications of an applicant for public employment.”

In open meeting, the chairman of the board is then expected to report on the “selection of a final candidate for the position of President of the University of Washington, conditional on the successful negotiation of an employment contract,” according to the agenda.

On the agenda is also the delegation of authority to the board chairman to negotiate an employment agreement with the final presidential candidate…….

The name is likely to be a surprise for almost everyone, and that’s by design.

As a result (of the secrecy of the search ) “the faculty does not feel this process has involved them,” said pathology professor Stephen Schwartz, who has also lobbied in favor of informal meetings with the finalists.

The UW has conducted its last three presidential searches in private, since William Gerberding was selected president in 1979, and perhaps for longer than that. That approach is different from other public institutions, such as school districts, which usually produce a list of three finalists for the job of superintendent and then hold public meetings so the community can become more acquainted with the candidates.

“It’s a weird rationale,” Taylor said. “It says we’re more concerned about not embarrassing someone, about preserving their job where they are (now), than about having an open process.”

Taylor said the model for performing secret search is “a very corporate model, and it reflects something that’s happening — the university has become more corporate.” A sign of that more-corporate attitude, Taylor believes, is the outsize compensation package the president makes. Former president Mark Emmert made more than $900,000 a year and, for a time, was the second-highest-paid public university president in the country.

Faculty members feel strongly about being part of the selection process because they want to be certain the next president is committed to shared governance — the idea that the faculty has a special role in running the university, from helping to decide which courses will be taught to who gets tenure, Taylor said.

Katherine Long: 206-464-2219 or [email protected]