UW let cloud form over hiring of president

The University of Washington appeared to make a good choice in hiring of Ana Mari Cauce as president last year. Too bad the UW’s Board of Regents didn’t carry out the hiring using a more open, clearly transparent process.

The university has insisted its selection process was open, despite emails suggesting otherwise.

The disagreement over how to comply with the state Open Public Meetings Act has now gone to court.

The Washington Coalition for Open Government, which has journalists among its members, filed suit earlier this month alleging that Cauce was hired using a “sham public process.’’ The process, not Cauce, is the issue.

In the lawsuit, attorney Katherine George suggests the hiring result was known six days before regents held a public meeting in which they supposedly made their selection.

A recent news account in the Seattle Times reported that the suit cited records including emails that “appear to show UW and presidential-selection officials conversed about Cauce’s appointment as if it were a done deal days before the regents publicly voted on the issue.’’

The emails show a script for the meeting at which Cauce would be announced — a script written days before any public vote to hire her occurred. And Cauce edited a press release announcing her selection one day before the vote.

This is not the first time the UW regents’ record of secrecy has gone to court. As noted in the Times, a King County judge last year found that the board broke the open-meetings law 24 times during 2012-14 by meeting for private dinners at the home of Michael Young, who was then UW president.

If all the suit’s allegations are proven, the UW would be again in the wrong. If it takes a court’s ruling and fines of up to $500 per regent to get our most powerful, most influential state university’s top people to pay attention, so be it.

We agree with WCOG president Toby Nixon, who said: “There is simply no excuse for repeat offenses, especially when it comes to hugely important decisions such as hiring a university president. … This case illustrates the importance of a penalty provision that has real teeth.”

The UW is not the only college that appears to skirt the intent of the law. The Walla Walla Union-Bulletin noted recently that Washington State University selected a new president, Kirk Schulz, without making his name or the other two top candidates public. Instead it referred to candidates A, B and C and selected C, which turned out to be Schulz.

If the courts can’t persuade universities to open doors, then the law clearly needs buttressing. In such a case, we hope a brave legislator steps forward with a proposal to make it even clearer what’s out of bounds — with sanctions sufficient to get the attention of privileged public figures such as university regents.

This story was originally published August 28, 2016 at 1:00 AM with the headline "UW let cloud form over hiring of president."