Gaudino a finalist for CWU president

James Gaudino, College of Communications and Information dean, returned from his interview at Central Washington University and now he and his environment will be under scrutiny this week.

Gaudino applied for the presidency of Central Washington in September and went to the university for an interview last Sunday through Wednesday. Students, the student newspaper, city council and a local radio station interviewed Gaudino while he was at the university.

“The student interviews were the most interesting time I spent there,” Gaudino said. “The questions were excellent.”

This isn’t the first time Gaudino has interviewed for a position at another college, so he was ready for the schedule set for his interview at Central Washington, which is located in Ellensburg, Wash.

“It was a very long and thorough process, for both of us,” Gaudino said, of the interviewers and himself. Each of his days started at 8 a.m. and ended at 10 p.m.

Overall, though, Gaudino said he feels his chances of becoming Central Washington’s new president are one in four.

“My feeling from coming from the interview? As good as a chance now that I did at the beginning of the interview process,” Gaudino said.

Each candidate had to answer the same questions posed by the interviewers. For Gaudino, the only thing he said he wondered about was if the interviewers liked the answers he gave more than the answers he gave that they disliked.

“(The interviewers) have four different people with different strengths and weaknesses,” he said.

Some of the interviewers will be on campus Tuesday and Wednesday to see the campus, talk to students and meet with Gaudino’s co-workers. Gaudino will have limited contact with the interviewers.

Contact College of Communications and Information reporter Amy Szabo at [email protected].