Pres. Pacheco packing bags for Missouri

Arizona Daily Wildcat UA President Manuel Pacheco, who announced his resignation in January, was officially chosen as president of the University of Missouri system March 14.

Although unidentified sources told The Associated Press March 12 that Pacheco had accepted the position, the University of Missouri system did not make an official announcement until March 14.

The board voted to offer the position to Pacheco March 12, and the agreement was completed March 13, according to a University of Missouri System news release.

Pacheco announced his resignation as University of Arizona president in January and will begin his new duties as the Missouri System president Aug. 1. The announcement ends a national search that curators began in August to find a replacement for former president George A. Russell, who retired.

The search firm Korn-Ferry was retained by the board to help find a new president. Pacheco was chosen from an initial pool of over 100 candidates, said R. William Funk, managing director for Korn-Ferry.

Korn-Ferry is the same firm that found Pacheco for the UA, Funk said.

The position will pay $195,000 a year, according to the UM release.

The Associated Press reported that the job comes with benefits including a car, an expense account and a university-owned house near the University of Missouri-Columbia campus football stadium.

Pacheco has been UA president since 1991. He previously served as president of the University of Houston's downtown campus from 1988 to 1991 and as president of Laredo State University in Texas from 1984 to 1988.

However, the board did not include faculty and students in the decision making process, said Gill Porter, director of the general education program for UM-Columbia.

Porter said faculty and students were unfairly cut out of the selection process.

"This is not the first time this has happened," said Porter, who added that the last time the board selected a president the faculty was "not involved at all."

"My impression is that it is a basic distrust of the faculty and students," Porter said. "The process did not include all affected constituents."

Malaika Horne, the board's president, said the search process was inclusive of student and faculty hopes for a new president.

"We had a faculty committee and a student representative for the search," Horne said. "I think we did the best thing how we had it."

Pacheco will oversee the four-campus system and report directly to the nine-member board. He could not be reached for comment.

The Missouri System has 54,000 students and an annual budget of $1.2 billion.