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The university began conducting interviews on Wednesday to fill the position of Senior Vice President for Communications, in the hopes of finding a replacement for Lorna Miles by the end of the fall.

The position was vacated when, in June, Miles left the university to work for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. Since Miles’ absence, the Office of Communications has reported to the office of Peter French, the executive vice president and chief operating officer for the university.

The university received 25 applications, and narrowed the pool down to three finalists, the first of which was interviewed Wednesday at five p.m., university President Jehuda Reinharz said at a faculty meeting yesterday afternoon. The Faculty Senate Council, a student panel, senior administrators, Reinharz, and the Board of Trustees conducted the first interview, French said in an e-mail message to The Hoot. The other two candidates will be interviewed next week.

French would not name any of the candidates being interviewed.

“With any search process there is a need for strict confidentiality with regard to the disclosure of specific candidate information,” he wrote.

Sydney Reuben ‘10, one of seven members of the student panel interviewing candidates, said the student panel was instructed to keep information confidential.

The student panel was not told how many candidates they would be interviewing.

“We received a very large number of applications from an array of impressive and extremely qualified candidates,” French wrote.

The student panel was given a packet at the beginning of their interview with the candidate’s resumé and a job description for the Senior Vice President of Communications.

Of the first candidate, Reuben said, “she was very qualified.”

“I felt very involved in the process,” Reuben said, adding that after the interview, panel members submitted written comments to Arlene Carey, French’s chief of staff.

French would not say exactly how the panel’s comments would factor in the final decision, but did say that “the opinions of the members of the student panel will be considered in the decision making process.”