Has something changed at Colorado State University in the wake of the secretive chancellor search that yielded a sole finalist for the position and suspicions all around of cronyism? The chancellor search that has so far generated campus protest petitions, a scotched state transparency law, an open-meetings lawsuit and an ethics-watchdog coalition backlash? Maybe.
The university today announced three applicant finalists for CSU Chief of Police. Note that: three finalists; not one. And that’s not all. The university has made the names of the applicants public so you can look into their background and qualifications. Also, the applicants are going to be asked to come to campus to meet with the CSU “campus and larger community” before any of the three of them are named Chief.
Crazy! It’s like CSU is a public university all over again.
Check out the sunny and open press release the university distributed today:
FORT COLLINS – Colorado State University today named three finalists for the chief of the university’s police department. The finalists will be invited to campus for open forums with the campus and larger community in June.
After the public forums with the candidates, the committee anticipates being able to move forward with a recommendation for the position in July. The committee’s goal is to hire a chief by the time classes start in mid-August.
The finalists are:
– Jerry Schiager, a commander at Fort Collins Police Services.
– Wendy Rich-Goldschmidt, current chief of police at the University of Northern Colorado.
– Joe Pittman, current chief of police at the University of Alaska – Anchorage.Dates of the public forums with each candidate will be announced soon, pending schedule arrangements.
“The committee received applications from an exceptionally strong pool of candidates for this position,” said Blanche Hughes, vice president of Student Affairs and the chair of the search committee. “We believe that out of this pool we can confidently recommend a candidate with the ability to lead the university’s police department and work with the larger Fort Collins community.”
