And then there were three.
After four months of searching, there are now three finalists for the University's new position of vice president for institutional equity.
The candidates are, according to members of the search committee: Myrna Adams, associate chancellor and director of affirmative-action programs at the University of Illinois at Chicago; John Garland, executive assistant to the president and interim director of the office of equal opportunity programs at the University of Virginia; and Salome Hayward, affirmative action officer at the University of Rhode Island. All of the candidates are black.
The search committee, chaired by president emeritus Terry Sanford, delivered its recommendations to President Nan Keohane in late May. She is expected to make the final choice by early next week.
In addition to committee members Anji Malhotra, Trinity senior and co-president of Spectrum Organization, and Trinity senior Shavar Jeffries, immediate past president of the Black Student Alliance, several students from Duke Student Government and various campus cultural groups interviewed the candidates and submitted their opinions to Keohane.
Several students confirmed that Hayward is students' top choice for the post. These students said that while Adams would be an acceptable second choice, they had serious reservations about Garland.
"In terms of who's going to fill this position, Nan Keohane has a choice between three candidates who are all very different in the way they are going to approach issues of discrimination at the University, and the candidate that she picks is going to largely reflect how committed this university is to minority issues," said one student interviewer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "If John Garland is picked, there will be a message sent to Duke's minority community that the administration wants to fill this position with someone who's not going to rock the boat."
The current student council president at UVa, however, defended Garland's record as a representative of minority concerns.
"Student leaders feel that he's a moderate, that he may be a little right of center, but that he is concerned about issues facing minority students on campus," said senior Carlos Brown, who is black. "He's not always going to be out in front leading the march, but he'll always be supportive of student concerns."
Committee member Dr. Brenda Armstrong, associate professor of pediatric cardiology, declined to comment on how faculty and employees perceived the candidates, saying it would be "inappropriate" to do so.
None of the candidates would comment on the search process or the position, although Garland said that "it's unfortunate that there's been a leak." Last Thursday, the Durham Herald-Sun named the three candidates in a front-page story, which upset many of those involved in the highly confidential search process.
"It definitely damaged the process," said Judith White, special assistant to the president and a member of the committee. Both she and Keohane said that the leak will make it more difficult for the University to recruit people in the future, as the breached confidentiality might make potential applicants think twice about applying for the position.
Additionally, the leak could affect the number of people put on search committees, White said. "Now we have to treat anyone as if it's possible they could leak information," she said, adding that one solution might be to shrink the size of search committees from 12 to six. White said she did not want to do so but might be forced to if confidentiality cannot be maintained in the future.
The new vice presidency was created in February by Keohane in response to community protest over her elimination of Leonard Beckum's position as vice president and vice provost. Beckum, who will leave his position in August, is currently the highest ranking black administrator at the University.
Keohane said that her decision was an effort to streamline her administration and distribute more effectively the responsibilities of that office.
Many campus minority leaders objected and stressed the symbolic importance of having a vice presidential post dealing with minority affairs, a post which Keohane established a week later.
Starting this fall, Beckum will serve full-time as a professor of the practice in the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy.
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