The New York Times reported that BU's former president, John Silber, independently selected Daniel Goldin, the former head of NASA, to be his successor before Goldin had the opportunity to meet with the BU board of trustees. Silber then pressured the board to approve Goldin while ignoring the voices of dissension, which eventually overrode Goldin's selection days before he was scheduled to begin his duties.

"Though boards are charged with governing their universities, and though the president is supposed to serve at the will of the board, the roles had long since reversed at this institution," The Times reported. "Among the most unorthodox aspects of the 21-member search committee was that Dr. Silber served on it. The presence of a former president on a presidential search committee is almost unheard of in academia, since it has the potential to inhibit frank discussion of the university's past as well as its future."

According to The Times, although the search committee hired Isaacson Miller, an outside search firm, Silber rejected several well-known candidates, such as Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security adviser and Robert Reich, a former labor secretary, according to The Times.

The Times reported that since the school currently has only an interim president, some officials are concerned that competing institutions may try to to tempt BU's best professors to seek employment elsewhere, and that the government and alumni will be hesitant to make substantial donations to the university.

-Nadav Klein