The Texas Tech University president and the University of Florida provost are among the first six candidates to apply for LSU’s chancellor position. LSU System officials released the initial list of candidates Wednesday. The list was provided by Bill Funk, head of the private, Dallas-based search firm R. William Funk and Associates, hired to help find a replacement for former Chancellor Sean O’Keefe. O’Keefe announced his resignation Jan. 16 and relinquished his administrative duties Feb. 1 to acting Chancellor William Jenkins. Texas Tech University President Jon Whitmore and University of Florida Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Janie Fouke are the two highest-ranking applicants at their current institutions. Edgar Anderson, CEO of Anderson Medical Consulting in Chicago; Tito Guerrero, Texas A&M vice president and associate provost for diversity and former president of Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas; James Hupp, Dean of the University of Mississippi’s Dentistry School; and Colin Scanes, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee vice president of research, graduate school deal and former Mississippi State University vice president for research, are the other four applicants. At least eight of the 21 members on the committee have a science or research-based background, which Charles Zewe, System vice president for communications and external affairs, said reflects LSU System President Lombardi’s intent to hire a chancellor who is familiar with University research. The Chancellor Search Committee will meet for the second time Monday at 2 p.m. in the Emerging Technology Center. “The committee may vote to go into executive session” during the discussion of candidates, although “no final or binding action will be taken during an executive session,” according to the meeting’s agenda. Lombardi said he hopes to have a new chancellor in place by the start of the fall 2008 semester. He said he hopes to speak with a finalized list of candidate by the end of the spring 2008 semester. Whitmore was a finalist for the Portland State University presidency until he withdrew from the selection process Wednesday. Whitmore determined his “personal leadership interests don’t align appropriately with the institution’s most immediate goals and needs,” according to a Portland State University news release. Whitmore announced his resignation Feb. 1 from Texas Tech University, effective Jan. 31, 2009, or when his permanent replacement assumes the post. Fouke told The Tampa Tribune in March her job was being “considerably diminished,” announcing her resignation because of budget cuts under new administrative directions moving her provost position under control of the university’s chief financial officer. The committee will narrow a pool of applicants to three or four finalists. These candidates will be invited to LSU for interviews, and the committee will submit its recommendation to Lombardi. He then will recommend to the LSU Board of Supervisors who should be hired. The Board ultimately hires the chancellor.
—-Contact Nicholas Persac at [email protected]