The first of three finalists in Eastern’s presidential search visits campus Monday and Tuesday to interview with various campus groups.

Livingston Alexander, provost at Kean University in Union, N.J., will meet with the President’s Council, deans, department chairs and others in the Eastern community Monday and Tuesday. Alexander will also meet with the Presidential Search Advisory Committee, which selected him and two other finalists from a pool of more than 40 applicants.

“My experience with the search committee so far has been just marvelous,” Alexander said after being chosen by the committee earlier this month. “The more I learn about Eastern Illinois (University), the more I like it.”

His visit to campus will also include tours of Eastern and Charleston and visits with members of the faculty union and faculty, staff and student senates.

Alexander has experience at fellow Ohio Valley Conference school Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, where he spent 15 years as a professor of psychology and director of graduate studies.

Alexander moved on to become vice president of academic affairs at Troy State University in Montgomery, Ala. Alexander also served as a department chair and professor of Educational Foundations and Curriculum at Georgia Southern University prior to his tenures at Troy State and Western Kentucky.

Eastern is not the first university to consider Alexander as its future leader. He was also a finalist in the search for a president of Bridgewater State College in Bridgewater, Mass.

Students can take a look at what Eastern’s search committee sees in Alexander during an open interview session from 3 to 3:50 p.m. Monday in the 1895 Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

Staff members can attend an open session from 10:40 to 11:30 a.m. Monday in the same location.

Interested faculty will have an opportunity to interview Alexander from 9:40 to 10:30 a.m. Tuesday in the 1895 Room.

The search committee also will meet with Alexander. The committee’s session is scheduled for 11:45 a.m Tuesday, after which the candidate will tour the city.

Alexander was chosen by the committee along with two other finalists.

Philip Conn, the vice president for special programs at the University of Tennesse-Knoxville, will visit campus Wednesday and Thursday. He also has served in administrative positions at the University of Tennessee-Martin and Morehead State University in Morehead, Ky. Both are OVC schools.

The third finalist, John C. Cavanaugh, will visit Eastern Friday and Saturday. Currently the provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, Cavanaugh has also held administrative positions at the University of Delaware.

Eastern’s search for a new president began with the formation of a search committee in October. Carol Surles, the university’s eighth president, resigned in July to seek treatment for breast cancer. Lou Hencken, a long-time administrator, had been serving as vice president for student affairs since 1992 and was appointed as interim president by the Board of Trustees after Surles’ resignation.

After this week’s interview sessions, the search committee will convene to deliberate, eventually sending forth its recommendations to Eastern’s Board of Trustees.

The board, which makes the final appointment, is expected to announce its decision at its next meeting in late April.