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Regent Jenny Connolly said she would have been happier had undergraduates not been snubbed from the list, which will be submitted to the regents today for approval.

"My hope was there would be one, because the needs of undergraduate students are different from those of graduate students," she said.

Regent Amir Arbisser said he agreed with Connolly.

The choices for the search committee is a change from the makeup of the last search panel, which encompassed several regents and UI Student Government President Peter McElligott as the undergraduate representative.

But current search-panel member Jonathan Carlson, a UI professor, defended the undergrads' exclusion, saying that graduate student Sarah Vigmostad will be a sufficient student voice on the 13-member panel.

Though Carlson said he regretted that an undergraduate student could not join the committee, he noted that limited slots on the panel constrained which university constituencies could be represented.

The seven finalists were narrowed from many more candidates, he said, and he could not estimate how many hopefuls were considered.

Connolly said using a smaller search committee could benefit the search.

This committee "has the potential to" find a new UI president faster, she said. "A smaller, more nimble committee will probably speed up the process. And having no regents actively involved should make the process faster as well."

In November, the regents - four of whom were members of the search committee - angered members of the UI community when it disbanded the previous presidential-search committee and rejected the panel's four recommendations for UI president.

"I think we are all trying to move on from the last search," Connolly said. "Having new ideas and new blood will be good for" the presidential search.

Carlson is also convinced that the appointees, if approved, will perform their duties adequately and help dispel much of the controversy that surrounded the previous search committee.

The next action that the committee with undertake will be to determine how they will choose the future UI president, according to a universitywide e-mail from committee head David Johnsen, the dean of the UI dental school. The committee will soon meet with major UI groups to discuss how this will be conducted.

Johnsen could not be reached for comment on Monday. Committee members have said they hope to choose a replacement for former UI President David Skorton by July 1.