Newspaper calls foul in secret selection of U. of Delaware president
From a Friday editorial of the (Wilmington) News Journal:
The hiring of Patrick Harker as the new University of Delaware president in a
private meeting may not have been egregiously illegal under the state's Freedom
of Information Act. But it was at the very least unnecessarily sneaky.
The 12-member executive committee that hired Mr. Harker is empowered to act
on behalf of the 32-member board of trustees. The board is covered by the FOIA
law, which requires business be conducted in public.
No one is suggesting that interviews and private discussions with Mr. Harker
and another finalist should have been public. But once a consensus for Mr.
Harker was arrived at by the executive committee, a public meeting should have
been scheduled as required under FOIA. The vote to hire him should have been
taken in the open.