Committee finalized in search for next president
University of Indianapolis President Beverley Pitts announced her decision to retire at the end of the 2011-2012 academic year in early October. Pitts has served as president of the university since 2005. The process of choosing a new president has already begun with the selection of the presidential panel and the hiring of an international consulting firm to help with the search.
Members of this selection committee include Nursing Professor and President of the Faculty Senate Connie Wilson, Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management Mark Weigand, Chair of the Board of Trustees Robert Wingerter and leaders in the community, including president and CEO of Keystone Construction Ersal Ozdemir.
The selection process involves a committee of UIndy faculty chosen by the Board of Trustees to represent the entire university in the search for a new president. These selections included people that could best represent the university as a whole.
“The Board of Trustees chooses who serves on the search committee,” Wilson said. “One of the board members is in charge of the search committee, and I was contacted to represent the faculty because of my role as president of the Faculty Senate.”
Another aspect of the search for the next president of UIndy was the hiring of Korn/Ferry International consulting firm. It is in charge of making sure UIndy has a variety of candidates to choose from.
“The first meeting was a three-hour meeting with the two consultants from Korn/ Ferry,” Wilson said. “They have been hired by our Board of Trustees to lead the search and screen committee as far as promoting the position, arranging for the advertising, bringing the candidates to campus, and hosting sessions with various stakeholders.”
Korn/Ferry is working with faculty, staff and students to ensure that UIndy has the best possibility of having a new president that fits the needs of the university.
“Korn/Ferry is an international consulting firm that is hired specifically for personnel searches. They service higher education but they also service businesses,” Wilson said. “They have done many higher education [searches], and the two consultants, particularly, that have been assigned to the University of Indianapolis are very skilled in higher education and presidential searches.”
One of the tools Korn/Ferry has provided UIndy with is an email address where students and personnel can offer their input about what qualities they would like to see in the next president. The email address is uindy-prez@kornferry.com
“Students will be able to go on that link and provide what their vision is for the next president,” Weigand said. “My role in the search committee is really to help oversee that process, because the search committee will be using all the information that we get from the feedback from campus meetings and the feedback from the email to sort of build the profile of the next president. So it really is a time for the campus to have an input and we really welcome the students’ input.”
Weigand will be working closely with students to express their thoughts on the presidential candidates.
“My role as a member of the search committee is to help guide the [presidential search] process from the perspective of the staff and the students, because I do work closely with the students, and most importantly it’s to help encourage students to participate by providing information to the search committee,” Weigand said.
Many decisions have to be made during this time. Wilson believes that her role on the committee is very important.
“I think it’s an interesting experience,” she said. “It’s a very serious process, and I do take that responsibility heavily. I know that I am representing the entire faculty on campus, and I have solicited faculty input.”
The panel has had only one meeting and the times of the next meetings are not yet set.
“The basic timeline is so we really have somebody hired before our current president retires. That way there could be perhaps some time of orientation,” Wilson said. “Her [Pitts’] plans are to retire in June, and we hope that we have somebody on board that could simply have some orientation time with her, meet everyone and they begin their work.”
Weigand said he knows the selection process is difficult, but he is very optimistic about where it will end.
“I think it’s an exciting time; even though we are sorry to see President Pitts leave. I think the university has grown in a number of different ways over the past six or seven years under President Pitts, and we wish her well in retirement,” Weigand said. “But we are also excited because the university is in great shape right now. It’s a wonderful university, and I’m sure we will be an attractive to a number of great candidates for that position.”
