Consultant briefs Presidential Search Committee, advisory groups on progress

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Consultant briefs Presidential Search Committee, advisory groups on progress

The Presidential Search Committee met last Monday with Bill Funk, the consultant working closely with the board on finding a new U of L president. Funk also briefed several constituent groups, including the Student Advisory Committee.

Funk briefed the committees on the progress made thus far, including an update on potential candidates. He said a president could be named by December, although it is likely the announcement will come next summer.

Funk said his firm, Korn Ferry, already has “a handful of viable candidates” for the presidency. While he could not release names, he said two are sitting university presidents, two are sitting provosts, and one is a senior executive at a Big Ten school.

The firm has also placed ads in several national academic magazines and journals, including two in the Chronicle for Higher Education, which have already yielded several responses. The firm has also mailed at least 500 letters to a proprietary mailing list of higher education leaders, alerting them of the opening at U of L. “We’re starting to get a network established,” Funk said. “We have a start.”

While this seemed pleasing to the members of the Presidential Search Committee, many voiced concerns over the timeliness of the search, which Funk admitted may take a while. “Typically, these searches will take six months to complete,” he said.

Funk offered to hasten the search somewhat, a tactic to expedite the grueling search process in light of the recent departure of current acting president and former provost Carol Garrison, who became acting president last June after Dr. John Shumaker left for the University of Tennessee. Hastening the search would entail distilling the current candidate pool, which by next month could reach 100, targeting four or five candidates, and beginning preliminary interviews with both the firm and the Board of Trustees.

“Our circumstances are different from our last presidential search,” said search committee member and U of L Foundation chairman Malcolm Chancey. “Substantially different.”

Once the pool of candidates is fully developed, the speed of the search will be the Board’s responsibility. “I’m ready to move very quickly,” Funk said. “Nothing has ever changed as far as priorities.”

But committee members’ sentiments did not all favor speeding up the search, as it could prove detrimental to candidate quality. “We want the best person,” said committee member Brenda Hart. “We just have to let the process go.” Committee member Bill Samuels agreed, saying that a hasty search was “liable to shortchange” the university.

Another concern with expediting the search process is that it could incidentally overlook the advisory groups, and in particular the faculty groups, potentially leaving a relatively unwelcoming university environment for the new president.

Aside from the internal debate remains the fact that U of L is not the only university currently shopping for a president. Among other universities, Rutgers, Cornell, the University of Minnesota and the University of Iowa are all currently involved in presidential searches. “There’s always some competition for the best talent,” Funk stated as another possible reason to let the search run its natural course.

Funk spent much of last week meeting with the numerous constituent groups involved in the search, including the Student Advisory Committee. The committee, which is chaired by junior history major Sean Deskins, is comprised of 16 students and is representative of the student body’s concerns in the search for a president.

The committee voiced concern in a number of areas, most notably that presidential candidates be approachable for students on campus, maintain Shumaker’s initiative push at the state government level in Frankfort, keep students informed on university matters and decision-making, and maintain a focus on fundraising and on-campus diversity issues, which have become increasingly tense over the past year.

“Whoever we look at has to have an interest in all areas of the university,” said committee member and junior sociology major Kristopher Fannin. He also lamented the fact that U of L’s statewide recruiting practices, particularly in eastern Kentucky, have in the past been somewhat subpar.

“We need somebody to continue all of the great ideas and plans we’re on,” committee member Elizabeth Sawyer, a junior political science major, said. “Somebody who’s willing to take risks.”

As for the progress of the search, in light of Garrison’s departure, Deskins is satisfied. “They’re speeding up the search,” he said, “but not to a degree that will hinder (it). I think we’re really on the right track.”