Public will get to know who's in running for University of Wyoming presidency

The Student Press Law Center reported Friday that the University of Wyoming will release the names of the candidates for the University of Wyoming Presidency.

Chad Baldwin, the university's director of institutional communications, said the university was dropping its challenge to a lawsuit filed by Wyoming media to see the names. The university had sought to conduct a secret search for the new president, but a district judge ruled in January that the finalists' names were a matter of public record.

That ruling inspired a bill to make the searches private. On Feb. 8, the bill became law without Gov. Matt Mead's signature. Mead did warn the Legislature not to further erode Wyoming's open-records law.

University officials had argued that the secrecy was needed to get qualified candidates for the job. But the news organizations maintained that a public search would attract high-quality candidates, as well as promote public involvement in the selection process.