 Shoshana Brackett/SDNAbove, from left, Higher Education Commissioner Tom Meredith and members of the Board of Trustees of Institutions of Higher Learning Search Committee for the Mississippi State presidency Scott Ross, Ed Blakeslee, Aubrey Patterson, Robin Robinson, C.D. Smith, as well as IHL Board President Amy Whitten, far right, listen during one of numerous sessions with various MSU constituency groups designed to solicit input on the qualities sought in the university’s next president. Below left, Starkville Ward 4 Alderman Richard Corey, left, chats with IHL Trustee Robin Robinson, right, between sessions about the MSU presidential search on campus Monday. Below right, MSU Student Association President Braxton Coombs voices his opinions to the IHL Board Search Committee Monday. Bottom, Search Committee Chairman Scott Ross, right, answers a question about the search process during one of the sessions Monday as Meredith listens. By SHOSHANA BRACKETT Starkville Daily News
Mississippi State University’s various constituencies voiced largely shared opinions about the qualities necessary in the institution's next president in a series of meetings with the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning Board Search Committee Monday.
The groups — from faculty, department heads and vice presidents to staff, alumni and students — spoke to the need for a president who is a great communicator and listener, who can unify the various constituents, who is humble and who wants to lead the university through a love for MSU and its people.
The information gathered Monday will be used to develop the president's job description for advertisement.
The Board Search Committee includes Committee Chair Scott Ross, Ed Blakeslee, Aubrey Patterson, Robin Robinson and C.D. Smith. Commissioner of Higher Education Thomas Meredith and IHL Board President Amy Whitten were also present.
Whitten said she was pleased to have gained so much information during one day that allowed the board to understand the core desires of the constituents as a whole for selecting a new president.
"There's far more agreement in the MSU family than I expected," she said.
"I think one of the best things that happened today was the clarity around at least three or four things I heard," she said, noting a recurring request for stability and longevity in the office of the president.
Beginning at 7:45 a.m. and running until 5:30 p.m., the committee met with each constituent group in 30- to 45-minute intervals, giving all present the opportunity to voice questions about the search process and give their thoughts on the qualities needed in the next president.
"We want to get it right," Ross said. "We're trying to make this process as transparent as possible. We're trying to get as much input from the Mississippi State family as possible."
The Robert Holland Faculty Senate presented the board search committee with a short list of areas to focus on when searching for a new president, including:
• Selecting a president with academic and administrative experience at the dean or vice president level, preferably at a land grant university.
• The ability to make decisions while also seeking input from those involved.
• People skills and a sense of humor.
• The ability to work with politicians.
The general faculty also asked for a president who can bring in funding, can work to reduce the migration of faculty from MSU by making them feel wanted and respected and a focus on the students and providing them with the highest quality learning available.
"I would like to see someone who being president at MSU is their dream job," said Tom Carskadon, professor of psychology..
"I want somebody who will love this place as much as we do," he said.
The Faculty Senate also requested that the final list of candidates be made public and the candidates be brought to campus for interviews that include members of the MSU community.
In response to questions throughout the day regarding what many have described as the "secretive" nature of the search process, Ross, Meredith and board members noted that several parts of the process have been changed since the selection of former MSU President Robert H. "Doc" Foglesong two years ago and said the refined process has worked well in the Alcorn University and University of Southern Mississippi presidential searches.
"We do believe these two searched went very smoothly and resulted in great presidents," Ross said.
"We feel really good about the process and the way it worked at Southern," Whitten said.
"We have tweaked the process from the lessons we have learned," she said.
One change to the process, Ross said, is that the board will not vote on the preferred candidate and then bring him or her to campus the next day as was done with Foglesong. Rather, the constituents will have several days to research the preferred candidate after his or her selection before a campus visit occurs.
The campus advisory committee also will submit no fewer than five candidate names to the board this time rather than the last search when no more than five names were allowed.
Meredith said the larger number of candidates will provide for a better pool from which to make the final selection.
The candidates' names will remain confidential. Though the campus advisory committee will know the names, the names will not be released to the public.
"It is a very open process, it's just that we don't release the applicant names to the press," Robinson said.
Several alumni and politicians questioned the secrecy of the search.
"As a retired regional human resources manager in one of our state's largest industries, I fully understand and appreciate the sensitivity of the task that this body has before it and I respect that, but perceptions, as we all know, can be just as damaging as reality," said Giles Ward, District 18 representative in the Mississippi Senate.
"Whoever is ultimately selected to fulfill this important, ultimate responsibility before us, we should not shackle that individual with a weight to drag around that somehow this process was clouded," he said.
Giles, who said he was mindful of confidentiality at a certain level, asked the board to make the process as public as possible whenever possible.
Ward 4 Alderman Richard Corey also asked for inclusion of MSU and the greater community in the process.
"I don't think Starkville would be what it is without MSU, and MSU is better when it is working with Starkville," he said.
Students, including Student Association leaders and members of the staff of MSU's campus newspaper, The Reflector, spent nearly an hour voicing their thoughts to the board.
MSU graduate student Bruce Latimer asked that the board consider selecting candidates either internally from the university or from within the Southeastern Conference or the SEC states.
Such a selection, he said, would bring in candidates that understood the Southern culture and Southern politics.
Student Association President Braxton Coombs said he would like to see a president who truly wants to be at MSU and who the entire MSU community can support.
The students largely questioned the closed search process.
"We can't have a repeat of what just happened," said outgoing Reflector Editor Tyler Stewart, who said he actually served 16 days longer in his position than Foglesong did as president.
The committee also heard from a variety of MSU alumni, community members and local government leaders.
"We hope that you select someone who will have the foresight to see the importance of the community and the coming together of the community and the university," said Mayor Dan Camp.
"Hopefully we can get someone who will see the challenge of the community and who can see the university and the community with the same eyeglasses," he said.
Within the next two weeks the search consultant and the campus advisory committee will be named. The consultant will be selected from among several proposals submitted to the IHL. The campus advisory committee will consist of 25 to 30 people representing each of the major constituent groups (students, faculty, staff, alumni, etc.). Meredith will select the committee from a pool of names submitted to him by each constituent group.
Several members of the committee will later be selected by their fellow committee members to participate in the candidate interviews.
The entire search process has been put on fast-forward, with the board's goal to begin candidate interviews in early September and name a preferred candidate by mid to late fall.
"We're committed to making this process go as quickly as we can," Ross said.
Information on the presidential search can be viewed at http://www.mississippi.edu. Updates will be made frequently during the search process. The public is invited to participate in the search process by sending their thoughts to the search committee through the Web site.
Editor's note: Starkville Daily News reporter Kelly Daniels contributed to this article. |
