The search for Eastern’s next president is coming to a close after last week’s series of on-campus interviews with the three finalists, Livingston Alexander of Kean University, Philip Conn of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and John Cavanaugh of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

The Presidential Search Advisory Committee will meet April 4 at 1 p.m. in the 1895 Room of the Martin Luther King, Jr. University Union to review feedback forms distributed to those who attended open session interviews.

From that, the committee will write unranked evaluations of each candidate, highlighting strengths and weaknesses, for the Board of Trustees. Board member Bob Manion, chair of the search committee, said the committee hopes to have the evaluations complete and in the hands of BOT members by April 9.

The committee will hold a joint meeting with the BOT on April 14, at which point, they will decide who will become the next president. The Board will announce its decision at its meeting April 29. From there, the contract will be written and the new president will take over July 1.

Alexander, vice president for academic affairs at Kean, was the first to visit Eastern, and boasts successes in minority recruitment and lobbying for funding at the federal level. At Kean, a New Jersey commuter school of about 12,000, he works with seven different unions and has experience in collective bargaining. He has also served as chief academic officer of Troy State University Montgomery (Ala.), which specializes in adult education in evening classes.

Conn, vice chancellor for special programs at UT-Knoxville, stressed building a strong relationship with the community and said he was successful in securing funds during his presidency at Dickinson University in North Dakota.

Cavanaugh, vice chancellor for academic affairs at UNC-Wilmington, explained how he improved admissions standards and raised the average SAT score from 1097 to 1140 and increased minority applications by 26 percent.

The three were selected from a pool of 51 applicants by the committee, which formed last semester and includes students, BOT members, faculty and staff.

The committee crafted a university profile for candidates to review in December and began narrowing down the search in January. Preliminary reference checking began Jan. 28, which resulted in the selection of eight finalists for off campus interviews, which were held in Indianapolis on Feb. 27 and 28. From there, the committee chose Alexander, Conn and Cavanaugh to come to campus.

Interim President Lou Hencken has been filling in this year since Carol Surles, president since 1999, resigned to seek treatment for breast cancer. Hencken, whose comments at an Annuitants’ Luncheon led some to believe he planned to apply for the position, had been serving as vice president for student affairs, a position he said he doesn’t plan to return to.

Otherwise, Hencken has said he is keeping his options open, mentioning his good times playing golf with retired couples over spring break.