Stoicheff open to second term as U of S president

A leadership review is underway after University of Saskatchewan president Peter Stoicheff indicated he was open to serving a second term at the helm of the billion-dollar-a-year institution.

Campus insiders said Stoicheff brought much-needed stability to the university at a time of institutional turmoil, and that there is no serious movement or desire for change at the top.

The university’s board of governors struck a 13-member review committee last month and sought submissions from people across campus on Stoicheff’s first five years in the president’s office.

If the board of governors decides to appoint Stoicheff to a second term, he would be the first U of S president since Peter Mackinnon, who left the post in 2012, to serve more than one.

University spokeswoman Jen Thoma said it would not be appropriate for Stoicheff to comment on a “board process” until it is complete. Thoma did not say how long the review is expected to take. His term expires at the end of June.

Stoicheff joined the U of S as an assistant professor of English in 1986 and rose through the academic ranks to become dean of the College of Arts and Science in 2011. He was appointed president in the spring of 2015.

He took over from interim president Gordon Barnhart, whose interregnum began in 2014 after Ilene Busch-vishniac was fired amid a scandal involving the dismissal and rehiring of a professor who lambasted her cost-cutting initiative.

According to his contract, Stoicheff can draw annual salary of $420,000, though he has taken home less over the last two years.