The Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board named Shane Broadway director of the Arkansas Department of Higher Education on Monday, ending his term as interim director, which started when former department head Jim Purcell left the agency in June 2011.
“We did an extensive search process … and we could not have made a better choice or found a better person,” said Kaneaster Hodges, a board member who led a director search committee.
The more than two years the agency has been without a permanent leader have been marked by a rally to hire Broadway - a former state lawmaker and Democrat -by Gov. Mike Beebe, campus leaders and board members.
That effort hit a roadbump when Broadway withdrew from the search shortly before the release of an attorney general’s opinion requested by state Republicans that found that Broadway didn’t meet the former statutory requirements for the position, which mandated “experience on a campus of higher education.”
Broadway met the revised requirements lawmakers approved in the 2013 legislative session.
The board voted to hire him after the other finalist, selected from among 20 applicants who responded to an advertisement with the new job criteria, declined to be interviewed. That finalist was Arizona higher-education administrator Thomas Anderes, who has experience leading campuses and agencies in several states.
Broadway, who has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Arkansas State University at Jonesboro, previously served as director of client development for In-Sight Communications and as a consultant with the Saline County Economic Development Corp.
He served in the Legislature from 1997-2011, spending his first six years in the House of Representatives and the last eight in the Senate.
Board members and campus leaders who supported Broadway’s hiring called him a consensus builder who is skilled at navigating relationships with lawmakers, students, educators and other state agencies.
Broadway said Monday that he was “very humbled and very honored” to be selected.
The board sent a letter about its decision to Beebe, who plans to officially confirm Broadway soon, spokesman Matt DeCample said.
The board also voted to set Broadway’s salary at $166,464, an increase from his interim director salary of $131,895 but less than the line-item maximum pay of $201,310 set in the state budget.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 10/08/2013