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NEWARK — As the New Jersey Institute of Technology searches for a new president, faculty members involved in the process said they want more openness and less haste.

Professors expressed their dissatisfaction at a faculty meeting on Thursday and cited missteps they felt made the search look less than professional.

"Rushing has led to some errors," said Professor Amitabha Bose, a member of the search committee.

The 20-member committee launched a national search on Nov. 21 for a leader to succeed Robert Altenkirch, who was named president of the University of Alabama at Huntsville in September. Altenkirch was paid $407,921 a year and received a $56,000 performance bonus earlier this year. Joel Bloom, an NJIT vice president, took over as interim president.

Some professors said they wondered if NJIT’s ad seeking presidential hopefuls should have been more detailed. The Dec. 4 ad in The New York Times was half the size of an adjacent job posting for a high school principal, and a Dec. 2 ad in The Chronicle of Higher Education was printed next to a posting about six times larger for a dean at West Virginia University. Several faculty members laughed at seeing the classifieds presented on a large screen during the meeting.

"It might not be so easy to find the NJIT portion, so let me circle it for you," Bose said, while showing the Chronicle ad. "It’s down here." But, he later added, "Size doesn’t always matter."

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Bose said he and the four other faculty members on the committee thought three mistakes had been made:not providing a mechanism to allow nominations;having presidential hopefuls apply by e-mail instead of through the human resources department; and posting an "embarrassing" draft of the job description on NJIT’s website.

Trustee Anthony Slimowicz, the search committee chairman, said the university is encouraging members of the community to reach out to people they’d like to see as president and have them apply directly. He said it hasn’t been the university’s practice to use the human resources department in past presidential searches.

Bose said committee members compromised on a timeline that has them recommending a list of candidates to the board of trustees by late January. Some members wanted a 30-day internal search, while others thought it would be better to hire a search firm to look at internal and external candidates, he said.

The decision against hiring a search firm came from the board of trustees to cut costs. "Candidly, it had a lot to do with being strong stewards of the public’s money," Slimowicz said. "We didn’t use a search firm the last time we decided to hire a provost."

The search was launched with an announcement on the university’s website; an e-mail to the NJIT community, numbering 45,000 people; and advertisements placed in local and national media.

The job description says the university will give "serious consideration" to candidates without a traditional academic background.

"We wanted to make sure we were reaching the best of the best, whether they came from a business background or a military background, really all backgrounds," Slimowicz said.

The university plans to hold a community forum with the final candidates, Weinstein said. Applications will be accepted at president.search@njit.edu.

Staff writer Kelly Heyboer contributed to this report.