VCU top job interviews coming up

-- Virginia Commonwealth University's presidential search committee will interview an undisclosed number of candidates at an undisclosed location over the next 15 days.

Three members of the VCU board of visitors met briefly Thursday to announce that the interview process will begin.

But Rector Thomas Rosenthal said he could not discuss the number of candidates or their backgrounds.

"We promised them confidentiality and we plan to maintain that," he said.

The 17-member search committee is "excited to put faces and personalities with résumés," Rosenthal said.

He said he could not comment on whether Gov. Timothy M. Kaine will be among those interviewed, but Kaine's spokesman said the governor is not a candidate.

"He's got two jobs," Gordon Hickey, Kaine's press secretary, said.

Kaine at one time had expressed an interest in the position, but this week he was named chairman of the Democratic National Committee. That position -- urged on him by President-elect Barack Obama -- will become full time when Kaine leaves office next January.

VCU President Eugene P. Trani will step down June 30. The board of visitors expects to name his successor this spring.

-- Karin Kapsidelis