(UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA – WINA)  A committee that’s helping the University of Virginia in its search for a new leader heard Monday from former President John Casteen.  The President Emeritus says a university should avoid becoming a bureaucratic maze. He suggests that can turn off prospective candidates.

Casteen says he heard complaints about the search committee in 2009 and 2010 that led to the hiring of outgoing President Teresa Sullivan. He learned some members of that panel directly contacted prospective candidates, and a consultant would have advised them not to do that.

The committee also heard from Scott Beardsley, the dean of UVA’s Darden School.  He’s researched the schools that have been hiring non-traditional leaders.  Beardsley says Bates, Colby, and Bowdoin Colleges in Maine have chosen presidents with non-traditional resumes.  Those are private schools.  UVA President Teresa Sullivan plans to step down in the summer of 2018.