The end is in sight for members of the ISU Presidential Search Committee.Although no names have been released, times and dates for candidate visits are scheduled as early as Friday.”We are very, very close to having identified the finalists to come to campus,” said Benjamin Allen, chairman of the search committee. “When you have quality prospects it’s always a difficult process to narrow down the list.”Forums for candidates will be held on Jan. 12, Jan. 16, Jan. 18, Jan. 19 and Jan. 22. Information from the search committee said visit days will include a diversity forum from 3 p.m. to 3:45 p.m., and an open forum from 4 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. These forums will be held in either the Pioneer Room or the Gallery of the Memorial Union and are open to the public.Allen, dean of the College of Business, said the committee received more than 100 nominations for the position and is selecting five or six final presidential candidates from the nominees’ applications. He said search-committee members must select at least four potential candidates for the state Board of Regents, who will also conduct interviews.”[The candidates] will be here for approximately a day and a half,” he said. “In addition to participating in the open forums they will also be meeting with the deans, student leaders — most of the constituencies you would expect to be very interested in meeting these finalists.”Regent Lisa Ahrens said she is looking forward to the continuing progress of the presidential search.”I’m happy with it,” she said. “It sounds like the committee has done a lot of work in the past couple months, and I’m excited that they’re at the point that we can start doing some on-campus interviews.”The candidates’ time at Iowa State is planned by members of the search committee, Allen said. Each candidate will be hosted by one of three committee members, allowing them an opportunity to interact with the candidates.Allen said he thinks the presidential search will move quickly once the candidates have been narrowed down.”I think we’ve had a lot of discussions about the quality of the pool; I think we would find that people are pleased with the prospects we’ve received,” he said. “We can complete the campus visits in a couple weeks, and we will get the search committee evaluations done a couple days after the campus visits are finished.”Once the evaluations are completed, members of the Board of Regents will begin their portion of the presidential search by interviewing the candidates.”We, as the Board of Regents, have the final interview and final decision,” said Ahrens, senior in agronomy. “I would assume that we’ll talk a lot about how that person sees their visions and goals for Iowa State. We just want to make sure that we are keeping our institution moving forward and following the strategic plan, especially since Iowa State just finished its new five-year plan.”While both Ahrens and Allen said they hope to have a new president soon, their immediate energy is focused on the upcoming visits.”It provides us with another piece of evidence on how good these prospects are,” Allen said. “It also gives us an opportunity as a search committee to show off Iowa State and demonstrate all the possibilities.”