KANSAS CITY Mo.
The search for the next University of Missouri president is down to a single finalist.
Several members of a 19-member advisory committee told The Associated Press the group planned to interview just one candidate. The committee met Monday afternoon in a closed meeting at Kansas City Southern, the employer of curator Warren Erdman.
“We met with one candidate,” Frank Schmidt, a University of Missouri-Columbia professor who heads the committee, said after the meeting. The panel consists of a group of professors, students, alumni, retirees and non-faculty employees from the university system’s Kansas City, St. Louis, Columbia and Rolla campuses.
Committee members will pass their opinions to university curators, who have the final say. Curators are scheduled to meet in Kansas City next week.
The new president would replace Elson Floyd, who left Missouri in April for Washington State University’s top job. Interim President Gordon Lamb continues to lead the four-campus system until a new president is hired.
A source familiar with the search process said the curators recently interviewed Gary Forsee, a Kansas City-area resident and the recently ousted chief executive officer of Sprint Nextel Corp. The source asked not to be identified because of the confidential nature of the search.
