As the end of UK President Lee Todd’s decade of presidency approaches, the hot topic for the UK Board of Trustees has been the search for his successor.

The trustees and the Presidential Search Committee both meet this week, on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.

The board will review the Search Committee’s recommendation for dealing with candidates’ confidentiality. A discussion at the committee’s last meeting led to the recommendation that the process remain confidential until finalists are chosen and only become open if all the finalists agree to make it open.

The committee is also encouraged to introduce one preferred candidate to the campus community before a final commitment is made.

The board will approve or disapprove the committee’s recommendations Tuesday.

The search committee meets on Wednesday to review nominations and applications for the presidency, Board of Trustees Chair Britt Brockman said.

“The pace of the search committee’s work is really picking up now,” Brockman said. “The committee has been extremely impressed by the depth and breadth of the field.”

The committee plans to begin making decisions on how many candidates to evaluate, Brockman said.

He said the goal is to narrow the field to three to five candidates by some time in April.

The board hopes to extend an offer to a candidate by May 1 and to have a new president at UK in July, after current President Todd retires June 30.

“The quality of candidates is a testament to how attractive the position of president of the University of Kentucky has become,” Brockman said, “particularly in the last 10 years under President Todd as we have aggressively sought our goal of becoming a Top 20 public research institution.”

Also on the agenda for the board meeting is a recommendation for a new academic degree, a Ph.D. in Clinical and Translational Science, as well as recommendations for degree changes in the College of Agriculture and the College of Communications and Information Studies. The creation of the Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education in the College of Education will also be decided upon.

Additionally, a new policy will be discussed regarding the changing of the process by which members of the university community can address the Board of Trustees. The proposed revision says the new process will provide “reasonable access to the board.”