First U of M presidential candidate visits Twin Cities campus

Campus visits are underway now that the University of Minnesota has narrowed its search for a new system president to three candidates.

The finalists are visiting all five campuses in the U of M system over the next week, and the first candidate stopped at the Twin Cities campus on Wednesday.

James Holloway, the provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of New Mexico, spent two hours at Coffman Memorial Union in the afternoon, first for a campus forum and then an open house. He already participated in similar events at the other campuses in Crookston, Duluth, Morris and Rochester.

The other two finalists, Laura Bloomberg and Rebecca Cunningham, are scheduled to visit the Twin Cities campus in the coming days — Bloomberg on Friday and Cunningham next Wednesday. Bloomberg started visiting the other campuses on Wednesday while Cunningham will visit all five next week.

The U of M Board of Regents is scheduled to hold a special meeting to publicly interview the finalists and decide who to appoint on Feb. 26. Whoever is selected will take over for Interim President Jeff Ettinger, who has held the role since Joan Gabel left the university in July.

The public can provide feedback on the finalists here.