MSU Presidents Project: What is the cost of finding a new university president?

Editor’s note: This is the second installment in the MSU Presidents Project, a series examining MSU Texas from the short tenure of former President JuliAnn Mazachek that ended a year ago to the direction the university is heading under new President Stacia Haynie. The next installment will be available Sunday.

Although JuliAnn Mazachek spent just seven months as MSU Texas president before returning to Washburn University in Kansas, hiring her away from MSU and, in turn, filling her vacant position in Wichita Falls led to nearly a quarter of a million dollars in spending for the two public universities.

Figures relating to these expenses, in addition to contracts, were obtained from Washburn and MSU via open records requests submitted by the Times Record News.

Search firm's bill to help find MSU president in wake of Mazachek's exit

Mazachek began at MSU in May 2022. She was back in Kansas by mid-January 2023.

In February of 2023, the Texas Tech University System contracted with Anthem Executive, a search firm, on behalf of Midwestern State University for over $100,000. The cost was the price of finding MSU’s next president — or at least most of the price.

TTUS agreed to pay Anthem either $100,000 or one-third of the successful candidate’s first-year salary, whichever was lower. The search would eventually settle on Stacia Haynie, whose salary of $350,000 meant the lower option was a flat $100,000.

But there were expenses even beyond the initial six-figure sum.

The contract with Anthem also included a $7,500 administrative fee and an agreement that TTUS would pay for travel expenses and other expenditures related to interviewing candidates.

Those charges added up. An advertisement for the position in The Chronicle of Higher Education cost $1,017. Travel and accommodations for interviewing candidates ran well over $10,000, totaling almost $13,494.

All told, TTUS spent about $14,511 more on top of their six-figure contract with Anthem. The total bill, administrative fee included, tallied up to approximately $122,011.

The TTUS Chancellor’s Office did not directly respond to questions the Times Record News sent regarding the cost of Haynie’s hiring, but the office's statement praised her, saying her “deep passion for the overall student educational experience is unrivaled.”

More: Presidential renovations, celebrations and search came at high cost to MSU

More: MSU Presidents Project: A timeline of leadership and where it has left MSU Texas

Washburn's tab for Mazachek's hire

Nine months prior to TTUS’ search firm agreement, in July of 2022, Washburn University contracted with search firm WittKieffer. The price tag was over $120,000 for hiring Mazachek back to the university she worked at for three decades.

The agreed-upon sum was one-third of the eventual hire’s first year of salary. Washburn would go on to contract with Mazachek for a base pay of $335,000, meaning the university owed WittKiefer about $111,667.

Additionally, the contract with the search firm stipulated another $10,000 fee for data and technology services.

The total price tag then comes out to $121,666.67 for Washburn to hire Mazachek, who had worked at the school for thirty straight years and left for less than a year.

Adding up the price tags for MSU, Washburn searches

The total of Mazachek’s hiring to Washburn and replacement at MSU came out to about $243,678. Washburn, Texas Tech and MSU all receive funding from taxpayer dollars.

Keith Lamb, who served as interim president at MSU in the wake of Mazachek’s departure, said the actions of the hire determine if the cost is worth it.

“It depends. It really does depend. It depends on the outcome. Right, if you undertake those costs and you get the right person in the seat, there’s tremendous benefit to the institution,” Lamb said. “And it’s really hard to measure in the short term, but in the long term you can.”

Cecil Witherspoon is a freelance writer and former intern for the Times Record News. He is a student at Midwestern State University.

This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Search firms' price tag to find presidents at MSU Texas and Washburn