Danny Williams says Memorial asked for help in presidential search

Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams says that the Board of Regents at Memorial University asked the Newfoundland and Labrador government to get involved in the search for a new president. Speaking today for the first time about the controversy, Williams says the government was asked to meet with the university’s presidential candidates, to help sell the province to them.

(For the backstory on the controversy, click here).

Education Minister Joan Burke got personally involved by interviewing two candidates because Williams says he was unavailable at the time.

The provincial government has been criticized for the role it has played in the search for a new president of the province’s only university and has been accused of threatening the school’s autonomy.

Mr. Williams says he sees nothing wrong with what the government has done and it was genuinely trying to help the search process.

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Mr. Williams says he assumes the search committee is going to start from scratch in trying to find a new president.

- The Canadian Press