By Jamie Fetty

Administration editor

The Presidential Search Advisory Committee has announced three finalists who will begin visiting Eastern for on-campus interviews the week of March 17.

After those interviews, the committee will convene with hopes of presenting its final recommendation to Eastern’s Board of Trustees in early April. The board could then vote on the recommendation at its April 15 meeting.

Livingston Alexander of Kean University in Union, N.J., Philip Conn of the University of Tennessee Knoxville and John Cavanaugh of the University of North Carolina-Wilmington are the final candidates to become Eastern’s ninth president.

Alexander has been the provost and vice president of academic affairs and professor of psychology at Kean University since 1998. Before that, Alexander served as vice president for academic affairs at Troy State University in Montgomery, Ala. He also worked for 15 years at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green as a professor of psychology, vice president for academic affairs and director of graduate studies.

Alexander holds a bachelor’s in philosophy from St. Joseph Seminary College in Washington, a master’s in curriculum and doctorate in educational psychology from the University of Houston.

Alexander said Tuesday he is excited about the opportunity to become a part of Eastern.

The last time he visited was about 10 years ago, he said, and he was impressed then and continues to be impressed now, describing Eastern as a “marvelous university with a world of potential.”

Conn is the vice president for special programs at the University of Tennessee Knoxville since 2000, and from 1998 until then he served as chancellor of the University of Tennessee-Martin. He was also president of Dickinson University in Dickinson, N.D. from 1994 until 1998. Conn has held other administrative positions at Central Missouri State University and Morehead State University in Morehead, Ky.

Conn earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Berea College in Berea, Ky.; a diploma in social policy in community development from the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, Netherlands; a master’s in sociology from the University of Tennessee Knoxville and a doctorate in public administration from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Conn said he has long thought of Eastern as an “outstanding school” and he is “eager to become acquainted with the staff, faculty, students and townspeople” during his visit.

Most of the schools where he has worked share a lot in common with Eastern, Conn said. Besides a resume that includes two Ohio Valley Conference schools (Tennessee Martin and Morehead State University in Kentucky), Conn has experience in schools that began as “normal” (teachers’) colleges and expanded into comprehensive universities.

John Cavanaugh is now the provost and vice chancellor for academics affairs at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington and has been there since 1999. At the University of Delaware, Cavanaugh worked from 1997 to 1999 as vice provost for academic programs and planning, from 1995 to 1997 as the associate provost for graduate studies and from 1996 to 1997 as the interim associate provost for admissions and financial aid.

Cavanaugh has his bachelor’s of psychology from the University of Delaware and a master’s and doctorate from the University of Notre Dame. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Research in Human Learning and the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota.

The University of North Carolina Wilmington is a regional comprehensive university whose enrollment has risen from about 7,000 to 10,300 over the past decade with a nationally recognized marine biology program.

Cavanaugh could not be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon.

Alexander named as his important qualities a depth of experience and a “knowledge of the academic dimension….(and) how the academic dimension interfaces with other dimensions.”

Alexander also spoke of his ability to make his visions a reality, through collaboration with colleagues and working to get the resources necessary to implement his plans. A commitment to improve city-campus relationships is another of the strengths Alexander said he would bring to Eastern.

Conn’s Kean University has an enrollment of about 12,000 graduate and undergraduate students, about 1,200 of whom live on campus. The university is comprehensive, offering 45 undergraduate and 26 graduate degree programs, and about 20 percent of undergrads major in education.

Conn said he feels familiar with central and southern Illinois from his travels between Kentucky and Missouri, and from those places to Chicago. He said he’s seen a lot of Eastern students on the basketball court or football field, but looks forward to the trip to campus.