The Board of Regents will appoint an interim president at Southeast Missouri State University until a permanent president is hired.

The interim president won't be a candidate for the job and will be named before the current president, Dr. Kala Stroup, steps down at the end of August, the regents said Tuesday.

Donald Harrison, Board of Regents president, said the regents haven't decided on whether to choose an interim president from among school administrators or select one from outside the school.

Consultant Allan Ostar said one option would be to appoint a former president as interim president. One former president of Southeast is Dr. Robert Foster of Cape Girardeau. Foster served in 1989-90 while the school searched for a permanent president. That search led to Stroup's selection.

Foster plans to retire soon as executive director of the Southeast Missouri University Foundation, the school's fund-raising arm.

The regents met with Ostar Tuesday afternoon at the University Center. Following a closed-door meeting, Harrison said the board is negotiating with Ostar to assist in a nationwide search. If everything works out, Ostar could be back on campus in August, Harrison said.

The regents will appoint a search committee to review applications and come up with a list of finalists.

Ostar recommended the committee include faculty, students and regents. He said the board should avoid too large a committee; a dozen members would be best.

He said the search committee could come up with three to five finalists, whose names would be disclosed to the public. The finalists would visit the campus. The final selection would be made by the board.

Ostar's recommendations came at the end of a two-day visit to the campus. During his visit, he spoke to 53 faculty members, students, administrators, alumni and others affiliated with the school.

All but one of those he interviewed felt the school should conduct a nationwide search. The one person said the school should promote from within.

Ostar said those he interviewed thought the school shouldn't operate for months without an interim president.

A nationwide search for a permanent president could take five to nine months, he said.

"The main concern was that the university not lose momentum," Ostar said.

Typically, many applicants can be ruled out almost immediately. "You usually get quite a lot of chaff in the process," said Ostar.

Ostar said his consulting firm, Academic Search Consultation Service of Washington, D.C., could assist the committee by doing background checks once the list of applicants has been narrowed to 12 or 15. Those background checks could cover everything from credit ratings to whether they have a criminal record, he said.

Ostar recommended that a search office be established on campus. The office should be kept locked, with only the leaders of the search process allowed to have keys, he said.