Among the first six candidates to apply for the University’s chancellor position are Texas Tech University president and the University of Florida provost.
LSU System officials released the initial list of candidates provided by Bill Funk of the private, Dallas-based search firm R. William Funk and Associates. The firm was hired to help fill the void left by former Chancellor Sean O’Keefe’s Jan 16. resignation. O’Keefe 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.
The other four applicants are:
– 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- Colin Scanes, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee vice president of research and graduate school deal and former Mississippi State University vice president for research
The Chancellor search committee will meet for the second time Monday at 2 p.m. in the Emerging Technology Center. According to the meeting’s agenda, “the committee may vote to go into executive session” during the discussion of candidates, though “no final or binding action will be taken during an executive session.”
On the day of O’Keefe’s resignation, LSU System President John 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 on Feb. 1 his resignation from Texas Tech University effective Jan. 31, 2009 or when his permanent replacement assumes the post.
In March, Fouke told The Tampa Tribune 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.
At least eight of the 21 members on the committee have a science or research based background, which System Vice President for Communications and External Affairs Charles Zewe said reflects Lombardi’s intent to hire a chancellor who is familiar with university research.
“I think what Dr. Lombardi is trying to do is send a message that we want the next chancellor to be heavily interested and familiar with a research intensive university,” Zewe told The Daily Reveille on Feb. 19.
The committee will narrow a pool of applicants to three or four finalists. These candidate will be invited to LSU for interviews, and the committee will submit their recommendation to Lombardi. He then will recommend to the Board of Supervisors whom should be hired. The Board ultimately hires the chancellor.
Although Lombardi may reject the committee’s recommendations, Zewe said it is “highly unlikely” Lombardi would do so.
During the committee’s first meeting on March 4, Lombardi said he wants the university to became a “high-powered American institution” under the new chancellor.
“One of the things we expect from a chancellor is to help the institution increase its revenue stream,” Lombardi told the committee during the first meeting. “You want to have a chancellor who can figure out how to take advantage of what the institution has to leverage every-increasing revenue to re-invest back into the quality of the place.”
—-Contact Nicholas Persac at [email protected]