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Finding the next president |
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Saturday, 21 June 2008 |
 Shoshana Brackett/SDN Top, members of the Mississippi State Search Advisory Committee for the university’s next president review a code of ethics document before signing their commitment to the process. Pictured from left to right are Dr. David Nagel, president-elect of the Robert Holland Faculty Senate and extension professor of horticulture in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences; Dr. Robert Wolverton, outgoing president of the Faculty Senate and professor of foreign languages in the College of Arts and Sciences; and Dr. Lynn Richardson, dean of the college of Business and Industry. Above, earch consultant Jack Baker of Baker and Associates of Atlanta, Ga., talks to the MSU Search Advisory Committee during its initial meeting Friday afternoon. By SHOSHANA BRACKETT
Starkville Daily News
Mississippi State University should have a new top executive named by the end of the year, said the search consultant hired to handle the nationwide search Friday in a meeting of the MSU Search Advisory Committee that is expected to be the only open meeting of the committee during the process.
Jack Baker of Baker and Associates of Atlanta, Ga., said the search timeline should allow members of the 27-member committee to review candidates' information by early fall before submitting names to the Board of Trustees of the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning, with a goal of announcing the top choice before the year ends.
Baker has completed more than 500 academic searches in 33 years in the business, as well as hundreds of searches in the business community.
Baker made it clear he will not be selecting MSU's next president himself but will serve as the chief marketer for the process, making phone calls, finding people qualified for the job and convincing strong candidates to apply.
Over the next two months, Baker will seek candidates and then make their vitae available to the committee via the Web site.
The committee must choose at least five candidates to submit to the IHL board.
The university is also working on a job description to be completed within the next 10 days.
Friday, Baker asked committee members to be brutally honest in their requirement for the successor for recent president Robert "Doc" Foglesong who resigned in March just short of two years on the job.
"I start every search brand-new," he said. "I customize it to who you are institutionally, where you have been and where you are going."
Specifically, Baker asked members to tell him why someone should want to be MSU's president, what his or her responsibilities will be and how he or she will be evaluated.
"We need to make our expectations clear upfront," he said. "I will never mislead a candidate."
During listening sessions the IHL board held with MSU's various constituencies in late April — faculty, staff, administrators, alumni, community members and students — several requirements in the next president emerged, including someone with academic and administrative experience at the dean or vice president level, a land-grant background and great people skills.
As a land-grant institution dedicated to research, education and service, MSU has offices in each of the state's 82 counties, as well as a satellite campus in Meridian.
Committee member Dr. Patricia Knight, head of the Coastal Research and Extension Center, noted that one of MSU's identifying characteristics in the state is that it is a lang-grant institution and makes it different from other universities.
Friday, committee members asked that the president be a people person, have a love for students and see the job as a wonderful next or lest step in his or her career.
"Without students there is no university," said Braxton Coombs, committee member and MSU Student Association president.
The committee and Baker were joined Friday by IHL Commissioner of Education Tom Meredith and Scott Ross, chair of the Board Search Advisory Committee and IHL board member.
Meredith stressed the importance of MSU to the state of Mississippi.
"The state of Mississippi depends on Mississippi State being at the top of its game," he said.
And, for MSU to be at the top of its game, it needs an extraordinary president, Meredith said.
The committee members, Baker and Meredith agreed that MSU is on the brink of being at the top nationally in a variety of areas and needs a president to lead the institution to the next level.
"We are on truly the rink of going to the next level," said Dr. Melissa Moore, MSU Search Advisory Committee member and associate professor of marketing in the College of Business and Industry.
Members of the committee appointed in late May were chosen based on recommendations by university and community constituencies to reflect key members of the university community as well as the public and private sectors and include:
• Dr. Bill Kibler, committee chair and vice president for student affairs.
• Richard Adkerson, MSU Foundation president.
• Dr. David Breaux, department head and professor, Department of Political Science and Public Administration.
• Dr. Susan Bridges, professor of computer science and engineering.
• Dr. Shane Burgess, associate professor and director of the College of Veterinary Medicine.
• Greg Byrne, athletic director.
• Beth Clay, Bulldog Club director.
• Dr. Donna Clevinger, dean of the Meridian Campus.
• Frances Coleman, dean of MSU Libraries.
• Coombs.
• Dr. Linda Cornelious, professor and interim head of the Department of Instructional Systems and Workforce Development.
• Dr. Susan Diehl, professor of forest resources.
• David Jones, national president, MSU Alumni Association.
• Knight.
• Dr. Kelly Marsh, associate professor of English in the College of Arts and Sciences.
• Moore.
• Dr. Albert Myles, professor of community resource development for MSU Extension Service.
• Dr. David Nagel, incoming president of the Robert Holland Faculty Senate and extension professor of horticulture in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences.
• Dr. Mark Novotny, head of the Department of Physics and Astronomy.
• Joy Odom, administrative assistant and staff representative.
• Dr. Lynn Richardson, dean of the College of Business and Industry.
• Janette Self, member of the Starkville Board of Aldermen.
• Dr. David Shaw, professor and director of the GeoResources Institute.
• Mark D. Thomas, president of the Graduate Student Association.
• Dr. James West, dean of the School of Architecture.
• Dr. Robert Wolverton, professor of foreign languages in the College of Arts and Sciences.
• Dr. Jerry Gilbert, associate provost for academic affairs at Mississippi State, will serve as IHL’s search liaison throughout the search process.
Marsh and Thomas were absent from the meeting and Byrne joined the meeting briefly by phone from the Atlanta airport.
Some members of the committee members will later be selected to participate in the interview process with the IHL board.
Candidates
Baker strongly suggested that the committee remain open to all possibilities in candidates and not place limiting factors that will shrink the candidate list.
"I do not want to be constrained or restrained in your search," he said. "Let's stay open to possibilities, let me bring as diverse a group as I can."
"The perfect candidates does not exist. Never had, never will," Baker said.
"I will not put anybody in your file I will not think is worth the hour or two you'll take reading the file," Baker said.
Baker even went so far as to say that some of the candidates he'll find will not, at first, be interested in being MSU's next president, but instead are happy and successful in their current positions.
"I want to talk with them about what the opportunities are for them here," he said.
Baker encouraged committee members to seek candidate nominations from their colleagues and MSU constituents, and then submit the names to him to look into.
During discussions, the question was raised of how public knowledge of an internal candidate could hurt the search process.
"It'll have a little bit of a cooling effect that we have an openly declared internal candidate," Baker said.
Baker said that the knowledge of an internal candidate will hurt the process, but that the fact that the IHL board hired a consultant to conduct a national search will help offset the negatives effects, as will the fact that the process is confidential.
The search already has at least one candidate — Dr. Vance Watson, MSU's interim president. Watson has repeatedly voiced his interest in the position since being named interim president.
Watson does fulfill several of the requirements for the next president that were mentioned by members of MSU's constituency groups. Those requirements include experience with a land grant institution, current position at the administrative level of an institution of higher learning and a passion for the university and its potential. Watson most recently served as vice president for the Division of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine.
In correspondence with the Daily News this week, Dr. Kirk Shultz, vice president for research and economic development, stated that he will not become a candidate for the vacant president's position.
Confidential search
Baker also addressed the much-contested issue of keeping the candidates' names entirely confidential.
"I have concluded that approaching a search in a confidential fashion with the names of candidates is the only way to go," Baker said, noting that he does not get involved in an open search.
Few good things come from an open search, he said, and sitting university presidents will not participate in an open search.
Since the search is confidential, Baker stressed the committee's responsibility to nominate the best possible candidates to the IHL board.
"You are representing Mississippi State University," he said. "You are Mississippi State University to these candidates."
The committee unanimously elected for Baker to set up a secure Web site dedicated to the presidential search when offered the option of either the Web site or a safe, secure room on campus in which to review candidates' information.
Baker said he has used the Web sites in many searches with no breaches or privacy concerns and such a site does not deter candidates.
The committee members also signed a code of ethics before dismissing Friday.
The committee members pledged that they were not personally candidates for the position; to focus on attracting, reviewing, screening and referring the best qualified candidates; and to maintain strict confidentiality about all matters handled by the committee.
From now on, the Board of Trustees, Meredith, Baker and Kibler are the only people involved in the search process authorized to make public comments regarding the search. Committee members were asked to refer all questions they receive regarding the search to Kibler.
Needs
Starkville Alderwoman Janette Self said MSU needs a president who will link back with the surrounding community.
"It's important that we have a president that will continue to bridge the gap between the university and the city so that we won't continue to be them and us," she said.
"We the city cannot grow without the university, and the university cannot be successful without the city," she said.
Committee members also discussed the stigma that continues to surround Mississippi, and the possible negative effect that will have on potential candidates showing interesting in MSU.
They agreed that touting MSU's positive attributes and simply getting a candidate on campus can make all the difference in their view of the institution.
"Once you're here, you find out what a wonderful place it is here," said Moore who has lived and worked in many other places in the northeast and Florida before coming to MSU.
Diehl asked that the board at least try to bring candidates to campus to have a chance to fall in love with MSU.
Other issues raised Friday included:
• The need for the next president to bring in fundraising dollars for the university.
• For the president to know how to work with faculty.
• To have a president interested and involved in the Meridian campus.
Information on the search process can be accessed by visiting http://www.mississippi. edu.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 22 June 2008 )
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