KNOXVILLE, Tennessee (AP) -- No backroom deals. No insider candidates. The University of Tennessee is bringing the search for its 23rd president into the open.

After uncloaked secrets forced out the last two presidents, Tennessee's flagship university is lifting the veil on every part of the process as it looks for its next leader.

An Internet site was set up to list every candidate being considered, and finalists -- 12 of whom were chosen at a public meeting Monday -- must submit to a series of interviews that will be open and Webcast to all. Even the search panel's deliberations and votes have been public.

"I would venture to say it is probably the most public search that has ever been done in higher education," said consultant Gary Daugherty of Atlanta.

The open process follows the downfall of a president who had been wooed to the job in secret by a consultant. President John Shumaker resigned in August when his penchant for lavish living at the university's expense was exposed after 14 months on the job.

His predecessor, J. Wade Gilley, was hired from a slate of identified candidates. But he lasted only 22 months, quitting in 2001 citing poor health and personal concerns after the release of e-mails suggested an affair with a subordinate.

But some believe the university has gone overboard and may have scared off candidates who didn't want to be known as job seekers -- particularly presidents of other universities.

"This excessive openness seems to be a massive overreaction due to the difficulties that UT has experienced with the prior two incumbents," said Sheldon Steinbach, general counsel at the American Council on Education, a higher education advocacy group in Washington.

"Let us be realistic about what we know in this world -- some of the best individuals who could be considered for the presidency of Tennessee are not likely to want to subject themselves to this public circus," he said.

Three sets of open interviews
UT trustee Jim Murphy, a Nashville lawyer who chairs the university's search committee, pointed to the University of Florida, which recently hired a president in a search that exposed candidates to public scrutiny for several days.

While that search doesn't quite measure up to the Tennessee's nearly three-week public process, Murphy hopes for the same result as Florida's: four or five quality finalists.

In launching its new process, Tennessee held meetings around the state seeking consensus on the qualities needed in its next president.

A decision was made to disclose every step of the search on a UT Web site -- listing everyone interested in the post, which will pay $400,000 to $500,000, plus the use of a mansion and a car.

The council first cut the pool of 47 applicants to 16 based on recommendations from the consulting firm hired to assist it. Then, after a series of votes Monday, it cut another four names before adjourning.

The dozen finalists include a UT campus chancellor, one woman and one man who was refused entry into UT as a student almost 50 years earlier because he is black.

Finalists for the job will submit to three sets of open interviews over 16 days before the university's Board of Trustees votes on a new president April 21.

Along the way, resumes will be double-checked, references called and visits paid to the candidates' work sites. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is lending its resources.

"We have an excellent group of candidates, I'm very pleased with the people who stepped up," said council member Spruell Driver, president-elect of the UT National Alumni Association. "The (upcoming) task will be difficult because of the quality of candidates, but that's a great problem to have."