The Iowa State Presidential committee met in a brief open session Tuesday.

The committee reported 104 people were nominated for the job, but 76 of the 104 have declined and 26 applications have been accepted, all of which have requested confidentiality.

The committee said at least half of the applicants are well-qualified for the job.

The number of applications for the job is considered normal, the committee reported.

Steven Freeman, professor of agricultural engineering and biosystems, said they’ve been soliciting nominees and closed the application date last week.

Freeman said the committee will narrow down the applicants by October, but the search is confidential until then.

“At this point, all I can say is that we have good people in the pool. I was very pleased with the number of nominations. There are excellent people in that pool and I’m confident that we’ll have a good president,” Freeman said. “I think that it will be a challenge to the search committee and a challenge to everybody when they come on campus to try to differentiate because we’re going to have some excellent people come to campus.”