The Presidential Search Committee’s second attempt to find Eastern’s 11th president will begin later this month.

A fall 2001 nation-wide search yielded 51 applicants, but the university’s top choice took another job.

“The search committee did what was expected of them,” Jone Zieren, a member on the current 13-person search committee and the 2001 committee. “Unfortunately, it didn’t generate a new president.”

Betsy Mitchell, the search committee chair and a member on the Board of Trustees, confirmed Thursday the first meeting will be at 10 a.m. Sept. 24. Mitchell said the meeting’s purpose is to set the application deadline and to create a timeline for the search process.

The search for a permanent replacement for former President Carol Surles has been unsuccessful since she resigned in July 2001 because of an illness. Lou Hencken has inherited the presidential position on an interim basis since Aug. 1, 2001.

Of the 13 members on the search committee, eight of them participated in 2001, and the widespread representation doesn’t end there.

The 13 positions are: three representatives from the Board of Trustees; three from the faculty; two students; and one each from the alumni, administration, staff senate and Civil Rights departments. Jim Appleberry, an employee for Academic Search Consultation Service, will serve as a search consultant to the committee.

Committee members were chosen, elected or volunteered, Media Relations Director Vicki Woodward said.

Mitchell says the perfect candidate will appeal to a wide range of people, even those not on campus, such as state legislators in Springfield. At the very least, Mitchell says, the candidate should own a “very good working relationship” with them.

If the process follows a similar path as last time, the search will roughly take five to seven months.

The 2001 search,based off Zieren’s notes and archived issues of The Daily Eastern News, followed this path:

– September 2001: The committee interviews three professional search firms. Their choice ended up being Academic Search Consultation Service. This step will be bypassed this time around, Zieren said.

– mid-November 2001: The position for president of Eastern officially opens.

– early January 2002: The deadline to apply for the position passes.

– January 28, 2002: Preliminary reference checking dwindles from 52 applicants down to 8 semi-finalists

– February 27 and 28, 2002: The eight semi-finalists meet with the committee for an off-campus visit.

– March 18 to 29, 2002: Three finalists – John Cavanough, vice chancellor for academic affairs, from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington; Livingston Alexander, vice president for academic affairs at Kean University; and Phillip Conn, vice chancellor for special programs at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville- meet with the committee on campus for interviews up to two days.

– April, 2002: The committee submits a strength and weakness profile to the Board of Trustees.

One external factor could potentially hurry the search process – Illinois State University is also conducing a presidential search.

“We’ve been up against them before, in competition with them before” Mitchell proclaimed. “It’s just one of those things we have to look at, as well as everyone else’s timeframe.”

Administration editor Tim Martin can be reached at [email protected]