News

The Presidential Search Continues

The University is on track for the Presidential search of the 2013-2014 school years. According to the email sent to students on behalf of Dr. Marcia Clever and Al Schiavetti, the co-chairs of the Presidential Search Committee, advertisements have been placed in several media forms to alert individuals interested the position of President for the University.

Grey Dimenna, Vice President and General Counsel the one responsible for most of the staff work of the Presidential Search Committee, has confirmed and named the areas of advertising for the position: “The advertisement was placed in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Education and three publications reaching primarily women and minority professionals,” said Dimenna. “The Search Committee also sent out letters to hundreds of individuals including government officials, former trustees, honorary degree recipients and donors and friends of the University, asking them to nominate individuals that they believed would be excellent candidates for the University’s next president.”

The University’s website has a page regarding the Presidential Search. It currently lists the end of October to the beginning of November as the deadline for submitting applications.

The Search Committee is now in the process of narrowing down the list of applicants, which include people ranging from various positions and backgrounds: “sitting and former college and university presidents, provosts, vice presidents, deans and other individuals affiliated with higher education as well as others from business and government,” said Dimenna.

As of the last email sent to students alerting them of the process of the search, 70 officials have applied for the position.

Some of the applicants, however, are still currently employed by other institutions. The University has agreed to keep the personal information of the applicants confidential. Their identities will not be known until they have narrowed down the candidates to the final few who will then be brought onto campus in the last two weeks of January into early February, according to Dimenna.

“The Search Committee has done a preliminary narrowing of the candidates and continues to work toward narrowing the pool to a smaller group for in-person interviews,” said Dimenna. “In narrowing down the pool, the Search Committee is considering each candidate’s background, experience and the quality of the materials submitted as part of the application.”

Dimenna added that the committee is still using the criteria listed in the Leadership Statement in order to measure the quality of each candidate.

The Leadership Statement, which is available for viewing on the University website, lists challenges and characteristics that will be sought for a new president. Many challenges are listed on the website but a few examples are: the future of the academic program, enrollment strategy, enhancement of financial resources, focus on student satisfaction and success, growth of alumni support, enhancing diversity and so fourth.

As of next year, the Search Committee intends on narrowing down applicants to bring to the University during the weeks of January 21, 28 and February 4. The email explaining the process states that “each visit will commence on an evening and will continue for two full days thereafter. During these visits, it is the intent of the committee to make each candidate available to as many groups as possible including faculty, administrators, students, staff and the Board of Trustees.”

A schedule will be made for each visit that will advise the campus about the time and location of the meetings during the visits which will hopefully allow all interested individuals or groups to participate, according to the email. Electronic feedback will also be made available by the committee to provide individuals with the opportunity to offer their feedback on the candidates.

The next president will be chosen by the Board of Trustees with the information given to them by the Search Committee during a special meeting in February.