More than a year ago, as St. Thomas was selecting its new president, TommieMedia asked the university for more transparency in the process.

Now, the university is making another major hiring decision — provost — and this time around TommieMedia is a bit more comfortable with how St. Thomas is balancing confidentiality and the community’s right to know.

The university’s latest approach to disclosing the list of final candidates seems to be an attempt to find middle ground between the highly public law school dean search and the tight-lipped presidential search.

The university announced Monday that a search committee headed by President Julie Sullivan had chosen three finalists for the executive vice president/provost position. Students, faculty and staff were given access to candidate resumes and electronic response forms, and invited to a series of open forums — with one caveat: a plea for everyone to keep the names secret.

The candidates requested anonymity, according to the Newsroom; and Susan Alexander, executive adviser to the president, said the university complied with the request.

Revealing identities undermines candidates in their current jobs, Alexander said. Furthermore, she said the potential of public disclosure could reduce the number of candidates.

Alexander said the university is asking the St. Thomas community to respect candidates’ privacy by not revealing names on social media or in stories. She, however, acknowledges the university’s attempt may not be leak proof.

“We’re doing our best, recognizing that there may be a slip-up somewhere, but it will not be the fault of the university; it will be the fault of an individual if confidentiality is breached,” Alexander said.

TommieMedia is a member of the St. Thomas community and has chosen not to report the names.

At TommieMedia, we have an obligation to report information that students and the greater St. Thomas community need to know. The university’s provost job description says this person will “play a seminal role in determining how St. Thomas will move forward” and “have an unparalleled opportunity to make a personal mark” on this institution. TommieMedia has a vested interest in reporting on this influential person.

However, our organization has no desire to harm the process — one different than the one we critiqued a year ago. When we weigh the need to report the news against the ethical obligation to protect those who may be unnecessarily harmed by news coverage, we think we should err on the side of protection.

Unlike the presidential hiring process, this search allows the St. Thomas community to be informed and involved in selecting its next provost.

TommieMedia will attend open forums, review candidate materials and monitor the process; at this time, we will not publish candidate names. Once a candidate is chosen, we’ll update the community.

We at TommieMedia believe our audience can get the information it needs both through access the university offers and the news coverage we will provide.

Heidi Enninga can be reached at enni5264@stthomas.edu