The search for a permanent vice president for student affairs is coming to an end, and the position should be filled by next week, according to University President Henry Bienen.

The post has been filled on an interim basis this year by former Director of Career Services William Banis, but sources inside the search committee said four candidates for the position were interviewed and given tours of campus last week.

Bienen said the decision would be made “very soon” because he wants a permanent hire in place by May 23, when he is going out of town.

“This is not going to drag on until June, because it just can’t,” Bienen said. “I want to get this done before I leave.”

Sources close to the search said Banis, who has served as interim vice president this year after Peggy Barr retired last June, is also a candidate for the position. He could not be reached for comment about his possible candidacy.

Banis was appointed last spring after a search committee evaluated potential candidates but yielded no new vice president.

“For a whole set of reasons, this search has been delayed much longer than it should have been,” Bienen said.

But in the past week, the pace of the search has picked up. Beth Cunningham, a Speech junior, gave a campus tour to one candidate for the post and said she answered the candidate’s questions about NU student life for more than an hour.

“She got to see everything because she initiated a desire to go on a tour,” Cunningham said. “I think it’s better to select someone who is an outsider because she knows how things are done differently. I think she wants to apply some of the ideas she has received from other places to NU.”

But both students and administrators praised the job Banis has done this year.

Associated Student Government President Jordan Heinz said students were “fortunate” to have Banis working for them, calling him “one of the most responsive administrators ever.”

“He’s actively involved and has gone beyond the realm of what he needs to do,” said Heinz, an Education junior. “He not only really cares about the general NU student, but he cares about us as individuals. We call him Uncle Bill.”

Heinz cited Banis’ work on formulating a new tailgate policy, cooperation with the Interfraternity Council and regular attendance at various student group meetings as examples of his active involvement.

Heinz also said the vice president of student affairs is the “single most influential administrator in the lives of students.”

“You have to have someone who has a pulse on what students want,” he said. “The vice president for student affairs has his hands in everything affecting student life except academics.”

Bienen said Banis has done “terrifically well.”

“From my perspective, from the students I talk to, from his colleagues in the central administration, he has done a really good job,” Bienen said.

In the two most recent national searches, for dean of the Kellogg Graduate School of Management and general counsel, candidates were chosen from within NU.

But Bienen said there is no rule regarding the hiring of internal versus external candidates, and that search committees simply looks for the best person.

“I think when you have a really strong insider, that person has the obvious advantage of knowing the institution really well,” he said. “If the system is broken and working poorly, you often look for an outsider to shake it up – not that this applies to all the places where we’ve brought in outsiders.”