Report: Leath possible finalist for next president of Auburn University
Photo: Kelsey Kremer/Iowa State Daily
Iowa State president-elect Steven Leath speaks to the crowd in the Memorial Union Campanile Room on Tuesday, Sept. 27, after the announcement. Leath will take office Feb. 1, 2012. Leath was elected unanimously by the Board of Regents as the 15th president of Iowa State.
March 18, 2017
Iowa State President Steven Leath may be on the “short list” for president of Auburn University in Alabama, the Opelika-Auburn News reported Saturday.
Opelika-Auburn News, in an article detailing the lack of transparency within Auburn Univerity’s presidential selection, reported multiple unnamed sources that Leath may be a finalist for the position.
The executive search firm R. William Funk and Associates was hired to handle the search. Funk told Opelika-Auburn News in September that if the final candidates are active presidents at other universities they would not be announced until a new president is selected.
“We don’t want to do anything to jeopardize those individuals’ careers back at their current institutions,” he said. “It won’t be us who decides that, it will be the final candidates that dictate it.”
Auburn University’s current president Jay Gouge announced his plans to retire earlier this year, asking Aurburn’s board of trustees to begin a search.
The university then launched a 14-member committee headed by Birmingham businessman and Auburn trustee member Raymond Harbert, Opelika-Auburn News reported.
The Iowa State Daily reached out via email to the president’s office and the Iowa Board of Regents spokesperson and have yet to receive a response.
An Iowa State spokesperson said Saturday via email that he was aware of the report, but had no information regarding the Auburn presidency.
Auburn’s board of trustees is expected to vote Monday on who will become the university’s 19th president.
Leath has served as Iowa State’s president since 2012, and previously served as vice president for research at the University of North Carolina.
Auburn University currently serves more than 28,000 students, according to it’s website, and it’s campus in Montgomery serves about 5,000 students.
According to a press release on its website regarding the presidential search, “the University is seeking a visionary leader who has impeccable integrity, exemplary interpersonal and communication skills and a passion for educating students and preparing them for successful and productive lives.”
The Opelika-Auburn News reported that Leath would be an attractive hire, with a former board of trustees member saying, “We’re a unique university, and he would need to know who we are. If he has land-grant experience, he will know who we are.”
However, Leath’s name carries some negative weight as he has come under fire recently regarding his use of mixed business and personal use of university-owned aircraft – in which he used the plane for medical appointments in Minnesota, flight lessons and trips to North Carolina.
Leath has reimbursed the university for the flights.
According to an annual ranking released by the Chronicle of Higher Education in 2016, Leath earned an annual salary of $820,461 for the 2015-15 fiscal year, which was the result of a deferred compensation payout of $320,461.
In the summer 2015, Leath’s base salary was increased by the Iowa Board of Regents from $500,000 to $525,000. A five-year deferred compensation plan was also approved, with an annual contribution of $125,000.
Gouge during the 2011-12 fiscal year made $2.5 million – which at the time was the second highest salary for public college presidents in America.
The $2.5 million was made up of his based and deferred salary which is not paid annually but rather received only after serving the full term in his five-year contract.
His base salary at the time was $482,070.
