The heavy-lifting phase is just beginning, but members of the committee leading the search for a permanent chancellor say identifying the best candidate will take the strength of the entire campus.
ASKING QUESTIONS
Beckman Institute Director Art Kramer makes a point during last week’s steering committee update on the search for a permanent chancellor.
The committee held an information session March 11 on the status of the search and took recommendations from campus members for qualities they’d like to see in a new leader.
Antoinette Burton, a professor of history, the director of the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities and the chair of the search committee, said members were finalizing a profile that encompasses the attributes sought in the flagship campus’s new leader.
That profile will be used to create a candidates list from nominations that have flooded in from all areas of campus.
“All of that feedback will be helpful for us as we review the nominations,” Burton said.
Specific names were not offered at the information session, but several campus members spoke to the need for a highly ethical and transparent chancellor who has proven academic success and an understanding of the broad constituency of a public university.
Others said the prospective leader also must be committed to diversity, not only as it applies to individuals, but also as it applies to the university’s comprehensive course offerings in the sciences and liberal arts.
“We could not be in more agreement with you,” Burton told commenters, adding the committee also is weaving the concept of diversity into the fabric of the search process.
“This is a person that has to be creative … but realizes we need all hands on deck here,” she said. “We are committed to getting as diverse a pool as possible. This is not lip service.”
Doug Beck, a professor of physics and a past chancellor search committee chair, noted that committee members will have to be prepared to answer questions from candidates as well, including questions addressing recent campus controversies, the turnover in administrative leadership and the state’s dire financial situation.
“Some of these candidates will be asking difficult questions, provocative questions,” he said.
Burton said committee members are ready to address those issues with candidates and maintained that the focus will be capturing the candidates’ vision for the U. of I.
“(The winning candidate) must be a respecter of tradition, but still be a change agent,” she said.
Nicholas Burbules, a professor of education policy, organization and leadership, asked the committee to ensure that the search is not conducted solely by the search firm, Florida-based Greenwood-Asher and Associates.
“You can’t let the search firm do the search for you,” he said.
Burton said the firm would serve as the committee’s support team and that the committee would draw on the firm’s expertise when appropriate.
“The committee is driving this search,” she said. “We will figure these things out, but we need a view from the outside.”
President Tim Killeen said the campus needs a chancellor who is transformative and willing to take on the new financial landscape that the final universitywide strategic plan will address.
“There is a new business model that will emerge,” he said, “and we need to lead it, not follow it.”
The search is expected to yield a chancellor by the fall semester.
Faculty members on the chancellor’s search committee are:
- James D. Anderson, a professor of education policy, organization and leadership
- Sara Benson, a lecturer in the College of Law
- Rebecca Ginsburg, a professor of education policy, organization and leadership
- Steven Michael, a professor of business administration
- Faranak Miraftab, a professor of urban and regional planning
- Mark J. Rood, a professor of civil and environmental engineering
- Jay Rosenstein, a professor of media and of cinema studies
Arthur Kramer, the director of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, serves as the committee’s dean-director representative.
Other representatives serving on the committee have been elected by their group’s constituencies.
Student members of the committee are Kaylee Barron, College of Education (graduate student); Samuel LeRoy, College of Business (undergraduate); and Paul D. Schmitt, College of Law (professional).
Darcy Sementi, the assistant dean for Master of Business Administration programs, was selected to serve as the committee’s academic professional representative.
Leta Summers, an administrative aide in Facilities and Services’ Capital Planning Division, serves as the committee’s civil service representative.
