Two candidates remain for Texas A&M's presidency from a pool of more than 300, officials said. A final selection could be made at the Board of Regents meeting Thursday in College Station.
The search committee looking for the campus' 24th leader in 133 years may have wrapped up its work Wednesday night, though it could reconvene again if neither candidate is acceptable to regents.
A third candidate dropped out last week. He was the executive vice president and provost of a prestigious Eastern land-grant university, said Richard Box, a regent and the chairman of the 16-person search committee. He and his wife decided they had established ties to their community and they didn't want to leave, Box said.
He would give no details about the remaining two, including what gender they were.
"These candidates were the best of the best," said Box, an Austin dentist, after a three-hour meeting Wednesday night in College Station attended by all 16 members of the committee. "We would have presented all three if one didn't drop out."
As late as mid-December, Texas A&M Interim President R. Bowen Loftin -- in an interview with The Eagle -- indicated that he was still being considered for the post. At the time, Box said in the range of four candidates remained.
The candidates were interviewed last week at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. When asked whether Loftin was in Houston last week, a spokesman for the interim leader, Jason Cook, said he didn't know. He said he didn't have retroactive access to Loftin's calendar and that he had e-mailed Loftin about it. No response was given to The Eagle at press time.
Regents left open in meeting documents the possibility that a decision could come on naming a sole finalist for the presidency. Such a move would bump up the completion schedule of February outlined when the search began in July.
The committee -- which convened a month after the June resignation of former president Elsa Murano -- included students, former students, administrators, faculty and regents.
Because regents had a chance to interview the candidates last week, the final selection process could speed up, Box has said.
Board of Regents Chairman Morris Foster has said that the next Texas A&M president will go through a search committee, alleviating concerns about previous searches.
In 2002, former Texas A&M professor and U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm was a finalist for the presidency despite not being one of three candidates picked by an advisory committee. The post went to Robert Gates, now U.S. secretary of defense, who was vetted by the committee. In 2007, regents selected Murano. She wasn't on the search committee's list of three finalists, either.
Regents still have the option of asking the committee to start over if no candidates are acceptable, Box said.
"I hope this is it, but if not, we'll get our track shoes back on and get back on the track, if the chairman so chooses," Box said. "But I feel good about it."
Also during the daylong meeting Thursday, regents are set to:
* Consider appointing a vice president for governmental relations at Texas A&M University. Courtney Trolinger had served in the position until last month. It was unclear why she left. Michael O'Quinn had the post until Murano split the job in two in 2008, with Trolinger handling state relations and O'Quinn handling the federal government as vice president for institutional and federal affairs.
* Discuss a proposed institute that would aim to bring in star researchers as fellows to Texas A&M for research and collaboration with faculty and students. If regents approve the concept of the Institute for Advanced Study, the university will submit a proposal at a later regents meeting. Funding would be needed for a "modest amount" of space, a director and support staff and to support the fellows visiting the university, board documents state.
* Consider selection of the president of Texas A&M-San Antonio, interim president of Texas A&M University-Central Texas, director of the Texas Forest Service and executive associate director of the Texas Transportation Institute.
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