UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTIAL SEARCH PANEL CONVENES

Southeast Missouri State University's next president likely will be recruited by the search committee or its consultants.

Consultant Allan Ostar told the search committee Monday that most finalists for university presidents nationwide are recruited; they don't just apply on their own.

The 24-member committee convened for the first time Monday. Its goal is to recommend three to five finalists to the Board of Regents, which will choose the president. The finalists won't be ranked.

The search committee hopes to complete its job within five months.

Ostar said he expects 100 to 200 people to apply for the post.

The job will be advertised next month in the Chronicle of Higher Education, an industry publication.

The committee will screen applicants and narrow the list of candidates to 12 to 18. That list then will be narrowed to six to eight, whom the committee will interview at neutral sites.

The finalists will visit the campus.

Ostar and consultant William O'Connell Jr. of the Washington, D.C.,-based Academic Search Consultation Service outlined the search process. The two will spend the next two days gathering campus and community input.

The goal is to develop eight to 10 qualifications that will be used as a yardstick in choosing a president.

Committee member Ben Bidewell of Poplar Bluff said fund raising should be a top priority for any president. "Money is important," said the former regent. "It is a dirty word, but you've got to have it."

Ostar said it is important to have as open a process as possible while keeping the names of candidates confidential.

Being a university president, he said, is a difficult job. "In the case of college presidents, friends come and go, but enemies accumulate."

The search committee is chaired by two regents: Donald Harrison, board president; and Lynn Dempster, board vice president.

The consultants will aid the committee by recruiting candidates and conducting background checks on applicants.

Dempster said the consultants have the resources "to find the skeletons in the closets."