The four finalists still vying to be Eastern’s next president will give open interviews with the campus this month, with the Board of Trustees set to make its decision by March 13.

The presidential search advisory committee selected Margaret Madden, David Glassman, Sam Minner and Guiyou Huang as finalists, which Eastern announced via a press release Jan. 12.

One of these finalists will replace Bill Perry, who has served as Eastern’s president since 2007 and revealed last March that he would not renew his contract after June 2015.

The finalists will spend their individual interview days with multiple sessions, each including a faculty forum at 9:30 a.m., a staff forum at 10:30 a.m., a student forum at 1:30 p.m., a faculty and staff forum at 3 p.m., and an open campus and community forum at 4 p.m. in the Arcola-Tuscola Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

Joseph Dively, the chair of the search committee and a member of the board, said the committee would collect feedback sheets at each interview session, which will play an important role in the final decision.

“That’s very important data to get people’s reactions on what they thought were strengths, maybe weaknesses, observations, and we will go through every one of those feedback forms and it will be used to help finalize the committee’s report to the Board of Trustees,” he said.

Dively said this process is similar to the previous presidential search, in which more than 500 feedback sheets were collected from the sessions.

“Obviously in everybody’s estimation it was a very successful search in that it ended with President Perry as our president,” he said.

Madden, the provost and vice president for academic affairs at State University of New York at Potsdam, will be the first to visit Eastern on Jan. 21.

Madden has a doctorate and master’s degree in psychology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Glassman, the provost and vice president for academic affairs at Bradley University in Peoria, will be the second to visit Eastern on Jan. 22.

Glassman has a doctorate and master’s degree in anthropology from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of Minnesota.

Minner, the provost and vice president for academic affairs at Radford University in Virginia, will be next to visit Eastern on Jan. 23.

Minner has a doctorate in cognitive and behavioral disabilities from the University of Arizona, Tucson and a master’s degree in learning and behavior disorders as well as a bachelor’s degree in elementary and special education from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville.

Guiyou Huang, senior vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty at Norwich University in Vermont, will be the last to visit Eastern on Jan. 28.

Huang has a doctorate in English from Texas A&M University-College Station, a bachelor’s degree from Qufu Normal University in China, and a graduate studies completion diploma in English from Beijing University.

Dively said a board member would introduce the candidate at each session, make an opening statement and then open the floor for dialogue.

“I envision them to be an opportunity for each candidate to provide an overview of their background, why they were interested in Eastern Illinois University, why they think it’s a right fit, and the majority of the session will be question and answer allowing them to interact with the various stakeholders that are there for the particular session,” he said.

He said after all interview sessions have taken place, the committee members would take some time to compile the feedback forms, then meet again to prepare a report for the board including their own perceptions. Finally, the board will deliberate and make a final decision.

The search committee met Dec. 19 to review reference calls the search consultant made on candidates who were targeted to be finalists, and the board met later that day for an update of the selected finalists, Dively said.

Dively said the Korn Ferry consulting firm spent a great deal of time identifying position specifications unique to Eastern as well as finding applicants.

“At this point the search consultant is there as an adviser, but really they won’t be here represented on campus when the finalists are here,” he said. “Their work for the most part is done at this point.”

All finalists are vice presidents for academic affairs at their respective institutions, which Dively said was common factor among the applicants.

“We had some from other disciplines within a university, but the vast majority were provosts,” he said. “So I think that’s quite typical.”

He said the committee was also looking for diversity in background; for example, each comes from a different state.

“We looked for (gender and ethnicity) in the overall pool as part of the charge to our search committee, but ultimately these candidates are coming here because we believe they’re absolutely qualified to be our next leader,” he said.

Dively said he thinks the search committee has worked well together, and he is excited for the finalists to come to campus.

“I really believe we are bringing a diverse, very strong pool of finalists to campus and I am very, very pleased with the work to date by the committee and with the help of our search consultant,” he said.

Stephanie Markham can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].