Elite 8

The Eagle reports

At least eight candidates remain in the running for Texas A&M's presidency, officials said Thursday.

They include both men and women, but an exact breakdown wasn't immediately available, said Richard Box, chair of the 16-person search committee looking for the university's next leader.

Box said that there also were two "alternates" and that, though the soft deadline for applications passed last month, he hadn't "completely closed the door" to exceptional candidates who hadn't yet applied.

The committee met on campus Oct. 30 for about two hours and whittled the pool of about 50 applicants down to the current list, Box said.

"It was a process of elimination," said Box, an Austin dentist who once served as treasurer to the governor's campaign fund, Texans for Rick Perry. "The members of the committee had a very active and deliberate manner in which they went about it."

The candidates come from academia, government, the military and the business world, Box said. He declined to elaborate further.

Vision 1920 wonders if the finalists have been sent copies of Chancellor McKinney's Inside Higher Ed interview, so they know what our expectations are around here.