GRAND FORKS - Members of UND's presidential search committee Monday discussed plans for five presidential candidates to visit campus this month.
Candidates will log more than 20 interviews, meetings and presentations during their four-day visits, including a presentation and question-and-answer period with members of the public.
Committee Chairman Paul LeBel described the visits as a chance for the university community to assess whether the candidates would be a good fit for the university, and also as a chance for people to sell the university to the candidates.
The committee will be distributing feedback forms to everyone who meets with the candidates and a digest of those responses will be forwarded to the search committee before its members conduct a final exit interview with each candidate.
After the campus visits, the committee likely will forward three or four finalists to the State Board of Higher Education, which will name UND's next president Feb. 5.
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UND's current president, Charles Kupchella, announced his intention to retire about a year ago.
All of the candidates' public presentations will include a 3:30 p.m. "meet and greet," a 4:05 p.m. public talk and a 5:15 p.m. reception at the UND Memorial Union ballroom. The five semifinalists and their presentation dates are:
- Friday, Robert Kelley, dean of the University of Wyoming College of Health Sciences;
- Jan. 14, Kathleen Long, dean of the University of Florida College of Nursing;
- Jan. 17, Phyllis E. Johnson, Beltsville Area director of the USDA Agricultural Re-search Service;
- Jan. 22, Bruce Smith, dean of the UND Aerospace school.
- Jan. 24, Dennis Elbert, dean of the UND College of Business and Public Administration.
During Monday's meeting, committee members reached an informal consensus to require the support of three-fourths of committee members for a candidate's name to be forwarded to the state board as a finalist.
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The committee also asked Chairman LeBel to write a letter to the State Board of Higher Education suggesting the legislature consider modifying the state's open records law to shield the early stages of future university president searches from public view.
Currently, the names of all presidential applicants are open to public view at all stages of the search, as are all meetings of the search committee. Committee members and the committee's search consultant have suggested that level of openness inhibits some candidates from applying.
The Grand Forks Herald and The Forum are both owned by Forum Communications Co.
Panel outlines plan for candidate visits By Joseph Marks 20080108
