Usi Search Picks Up Applicants Vie for Presidency
By MARK WILSON Courier & Press staff writer 464-7417 or wilsonm@courierpress.com
After a little more than a month of advertising the job, the University of Southern Indiana already has received several applications for university president.
Search coordinator Sherrianne Standley said officials are hoping for many more.
“We are just getting started,” she said.
Current USI President H. Ray Hoops succeeded USI’s first president, David Rice, in 1994. In January, Hoops announced he will retire at the end of June 2009.
Standley, who retired as USI’s vice president of advancement last year, is heading the process assisted by a 19-member search-and- screen committee with representatives from faculty, students, staff, alumni, the USI Foundation, the USI board of trustees and the community.
However, Standley said she could not say if any of the applications received are from current USI administrators or whether any have expressed an interest in the position.
The search committee hopes to begin looking at finalists in January with an eye on announcing its selection in March.
An ad for the position ran in the weekly Chronicle of Higher Education in August and again this month, Standley said, and the ad also has appeared on the publication’s Web site, as well as in several other publications and Web sites. Some, such as Diverse Issues in Higher Edu
cation and Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education, are aimed at minorities.
“It is absolutely wide open. We want to cast as wide a net as possible and find the very best leader,” Standley said.
The Internet also is important in the current presidential search.
“Fifteen years ago we didn’t have the Web. We didn’t have this tool available to us like we do today,” she said.
USI has created a presidential search Web page that interested candidates or the public can access to learn more about the university and the search process.
Once finalists are announced in January, the candidates will be brought in for two days of meetings with university faculty, staff, administrators, students and the public.
“They will be able to talk about what is important to them and their vision for the institution if they have shaped one by then,” Standley said.
At that time, people will be able to e-mail their impressions of the candidates to the search committee, which will consider them in their deliberations.
The committee will take applications until Oct. 22. An all-day executive session is scheduled for Oct. 25 to narrow the field.
Semifinalists then will be brought in for interviews. No names will be announced until three to five finalists are selected.
“It’s a very collaborative process, and it will help ensure the success of the next president,” Standley said.
Excerpt from the University of Southern Indiana’s advertisement for its next president:
The successful candidate will possess:
n An earned doctorate or professional equivalent
n A record of professional distinction and/or scholarly achievement
n A commitment to higher education
n A demonstrated ability in resource development
n The ability to delegate
n Evidence of planning, goal-setting and achievement
n Experience in community leadership beyond campus borders
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