The Chancellor Search Committee met Tuesday afternoon tofinalize the position description for its ideal candidate and toorganize a sub-committee to discuss the candidates’ future visitsto campus.
The committee, consisting mostly of faculty, administration andbusiness owners has tackled many tasks and decisions within thelast few months and is gearing up for the quickly-approaching Nov.1 deadline for applications.
Brad Golson, Student Government president and a member of thesearch committee, said Nov. 1 is a “soft” deadline, meaning thecommittee will not deny any applications after the date.
After spending two meetings discussing whether the candidateapplications will remain private, the committee used the thirdmeeting to edit and debate the chancellor position description thatwill be sent and posted on the Chancellor Search Committee Web siteand the journal Higher Education.
For some committee members each word holds importantsignificance, but for other members such as LSU Athletics DirectorSkip Bertman, it is not the sentence structure that drawsexceptional leaders to this campus. Bertman seemed to use his senseof humor to point out the lack of progress the committee wasmaking.
“There is too much brain power in this room,” Bertman said. “Weare spending too much time on this. Whether or not the word is thisor that the same eight or nine people we choose are going to behere.”
Joel Tohline, the search committee chair, spent his time in themeeting mediating and updating information and documents. Tohlinesaid editing the position description is important because it willbe under the critique of both candidates and non-candidates.
“The faculty on this campus will be reading this description andcritiquing every bit of it,” Tohline said.
The committee kept its sense of humor throughout the majority ofthe meeting, with Bertman providing the jokes to release thetension brought by the disagreements of the committee members.However, Risa Palm, vice-provost and executive vice chancellor andRobert Kuhn, associate vice chancellor for Finance andAdministrative Services, spent the meeting mouthing words to oneanother and nodding in agreement.
Tohline referred to the chancellor search conducted six yearsago, which helped find former Chancellor Mark Emmert, to outlinethe order of events the committee should be following. Tohline saidthe previous chancellor search consisted of bringing candidates tocampus for a brief two-day visit, a step he hopes to bring to thischancellor search.
Tohline said he needed a sub-committee to help decide whichgroups and people on campus the candidates should be introduced toduring their 48-hour tour of the University.
The sub-committee consists of Tohline, Golson, assistant dean ofContinuing Education and director of the Evening School, JoanneMcMullen, LSU Foundation Board Member and CEO of Marine Lifts Inc.,Gary L. Laborde and, associate director of the LSU Cain Center forScientific, Technological, Engineering and Mathematical Literacy,Nell McAnelly.
The sub-committee will discuss and present potential groups andpeople the candidates will meet while on their visit.
The next committee meeting is not yet scheduled.