The University of Tennessee Search Advisory Council pared the list of 47 potential presidents to 12 on Monday, and NIU President John Peters made the cut.

The 12 people left on the presidential search list will be brought to Knoxville to interview with the Search Advisory Council on either April 13, 14 or 15. Peters said he has yet to decide if he will go through with this next part of the process.

“I’m taking a step-by-step approach to this,” he said.

Peters said he is interested in talking with UT this week to find out more about the presidency itself. He is concerned about the level of interaction between the president and students and faculty.

“I have any number of questions about the position,” Peters said. “I need to hear what they’re looking for in a president.”

The search firm vigorously kept after Peters to declare his candidacy for the UT position. He said his history with the school, having been there for about eight years before coming to NIU, including serving as UT-Knoxville’s provost, might be what makes him so appealing to the search.

This is not the first time UT has contacted him about becoming its president, he said. The school has had two presidents in the time Peters has been at NIU, and after the first president failed, Peters was pursued but rejected the nomination immediately.

This time, however, it seems that an understanding of UT is a requirement for the UT search committees because the last two presidents were unsuccessful and not from Tennessee, he said.

“They can’t take any risks,” Peters said. “They have had two less-than-successful presidencies; they can’t afford a third.”

He said while he was grateful to be nominated for this presidency, it was very difficult for him to commit. The NIU Board of Trustees, however, was not surprised by his candidacy.

“On behalf of the entire board, I want to say that John Peters’ nomination for the presidency at University of Tennessee comes as no surprise to any of us. The board has been well aware of John’s nominations over the past two years for virtually every major public university presidency in the country,” BOT chairman Gary Skoien said in a statement released Monday.

Peters said the BOT has been very supportive of his decision to continue in the UT presidential search, and Skoien affirmed that comment.

“President Peters remains fully committed to NIU, even as he engages in discussions about his own future. I have complete confidence that he will continue to pursue our key NIU initiatives with the same energy and dedication that have always characterized his presidency here,” Skoien said.

It is unusual this chance came up when it did, Peters said, given his history with the school and that he hired or worked with many of the deans and chancellors who are there. “The opportunity is now,” he said.