By Stephen Georgestaff Writer
The Presidential Search Committee met for the first time last week to discuss how to go about finding candidates to replace departing university president John Shumaker.
The Search Committee, which convened at the University Club on Monday, March 15, is comprised of 15 members and is co-chaired by Board of Trustees Vice Chair Junior Bridgeman and Trustee Board Treasurer and Vice Chair of the U of L Foundation Chester Porter. Its immediate goal is to develop a search process and appoint advisory committees in the quest for a new leader at U of L.
“We need lots and lots of help for this to be decided upon,” Porter said at the start of the meeting. “We are going to need the leadership of advisory committees to participate in this process.”
A document titled “Charge to the Trustees Presidential Search Committee” was issued by Chair Jessica Loving. It defines the responsibilities of the committee and also supplies a list of advisory committees to be recruited and appointed during the process. Advisory committees listed in the document include a Student Committee, a Faculty Committee, a Staff Committee, an Administrative Committee, an Alumni Committee, an Overseers Committee, and a Foundation Committee.
The trustees also voted yes on a motion to include one or more Community Advisory Committees on the predetermined list, as well as the seven aforementioned committees. The committee decided that including members of the Louisville community in the search for a new president “would be good for the image of the university” in continuing Shumaker’s vision for a more metropolitan university.
“We want input from the community,” said Porter. “We want the community to participate.”
The Trustees Presidential Search Committee and supplemental advisory committees will not be working alone. A list of six search firms was also presented at the meeting; their purpose is to serve as counsel to the committees and general overseer to the process. The law firm Stites and Harbison is the only locally based firm on the list. The search firm is in place to referee any internal conflicts among committees, as well as to help determine the candidates, finalists, and eventually the new president.
Because the firm will have a vested monetary interest in the process, as well as in the candidates chosen, there could be a control issue between the committee and the firm. “We can’t let the search firm control the pool (of candidates),” said Bill Samuels, immediate past chair of the Board of Trustees and president of Maker’s Mark.
The committee also expressed the need for specific criteria for the new president in order to avoid any potential interior conflicts. “It forces everybody to deal with the criteria before the person,” said Samuels. In order to establish criteria, the committee also agreed to meet formally with the members of the 1994 search committee that brought Dr. Shumaker to the university. Two members of the current committee, Mike Harreld and Mike Livingston, also served on the 1994 committee. The past and current committees will assemble on Monday, April 8, at noon.
SGA President and Student Trustee to the Board Carlton Brown also raised the issue of releasing candidates’ names to the public. The committee decided that all names would be held in complete confidentiality until a list of finalists is chosen, pending agreement for release by all candidates.
The tentative date for the next Trustees Presidential Search Committee meeting is Monday, April 22, around 2 p.m. The exact time will be announced later. Meetings are open to the public.
