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February 15, 1996

Chancellor search committee has narrowed list to 20-25 candidates

After reviewing some 200 applications and nominations, the committee searching for a new, permanent Pitt chancellor has narrowed its list to 20-25 candidates, according to committee chairperson James C. Roddey. The search committee plans to trim the list to 15 candidates by the end of February, said Roddey, a Pitt trustee.

During March and April, the committee is scheduled to conduct what Roddey called "very intensive" background checks and off-campus interviews with the 15 semi-finalists. The committee hopes to submit names of five finalists to the Board of Trustees in May, Roddey said.

"If, for some reason, we can't get five high-quality candidates by the end of May, we will continue the search. But I don't expect that to happen," he said.

Board chairperson J. Wray Connolly did not give the committee a deadline for choosing finalists. Rather, he urged members to be "very deliberate" in finding the best candidates possible.

Roddey said the search committee will invite the five finalists to the Pittsburgh campus to meet with groups of faculty, deans, staff, students and trustees.

Although the official deadline for applications and nominations has passed, the committee will consider highly qualified candidates who apply between now and the finalist stage, Roddey noted.

Of the 20-25 candidates still formally in the running, "two or three" are employed outside academia, although all have worked at universities at some time in their careers, Roddey said. He would not say how many (if any) of the remaining candidates are Pitt personnel.

"What I can tell you is that all of them have expressed interest in the job, or at least said they're interested in discussing it. It's also fair to say that we [committee members] are very pleased with the outstanding calibre of these individuals." At the Feb. 14 Staff Association Council (SAC) meeting, Roddey said that none of the candidates still in the running applied for the chancellor position. They were either nominated by someone else or were sought out by the search committee.

While declining to mention any names, Roddey told SAC that the presidents of Purdue University and New York University have both told the committee they are not interested in the position. Roddey said both men were sought by the search committee. Roddey denied rumors that the Pitt chancellor search has suffered because a number of other schools — including Johns Hopkins University, Tulsa, and the universities of Alabama, Iowa and Michigan — also have been searching for new leaders.

"That really hasn't been a problem," Roddey said. "In three instances, people who were candidates for the chancellor's job here [at Pitt] have also been candidates for presidencies at other universities. And one of our remaining candidates has been offered the presidency of another university. Because he has a solid offer from them, he'll probably accept that job.

"Those are the only cases I'm aware of where we've been competing with searches at other schools." Search committee members have pledged not to leak candidates' names to the news media. Assisting the search committee in finding candidates and checking their backgrounds is the Dallas-based search consulting firm of Korn/Ferry International.

Among the schools that retained Korn/Ferry in recent searches for presidents and chancellors are the universities of Alabama and Arizona, Clemson, Louisiana State, Ohio University, Oklahoma State, Rutgers, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Southern California and Texas Tech.

Roddey said search committee members appreciated the vote of confidence they received recently when board chairperson Connolly rejected a recommendation to disband the committee. The recommendation appeared in a report by a team of five prominent educators from around the country, hired by the Board of Trustees last fall to do a comprehensive review of the University. (See Feb. 1 University Times for stories on the report.) The consultants argued that the 24-member search committee "is entirely too large, as well as being poorly constituted. Any result from such a process is bound to be a compromise candidate, or one entirely too collegial to provide the strong leadership needed by the University of Pittsburgh." The consultants recommended replacing the current committee with an 11-member group consisting of six appointed trustees, three faculty members designated by the University Senate, one undergraduate student named by the Student Government Association, and one alumnus appointed by the Pitt Alumni Association.

Like Connolly, Roddey defended the current committee and said that replacing it would have set back the search by months. "Originally, I thought the current committee was far too large. But, having said that, I've found it to be an excellent group," Roddey said.

Despite predictions that the various constituencies represented on the committee — trustees, faculty, staff, students, alumni — would advocate their own narrow interests, committee members have worked well together, he said.

"Traditionally, the friction in a search committee like this one comes from trustees, representing the business community, clashing with faculty members representing academic interests. But this committee has been able to merge those agendas." Roddey said he did agree with at least two of the consultants' conclusions: * While the new chancellor should have administrative experience, a doctorate or its equivalent and at least some record of teaching and publication, "a tested record of courage and integrity are more important for the next chancellor than impeccable academic credentials." * Pitt cannot afford to hire a mediocre chancellor at this point in its history.

Roddey commented: "In less demanding times, I could see Pitt getting by with someone with a lot of expertise in one area — for example, a good outside man who's very skilled at fundraising and lobbying, who could let other administrators run the University.

"Or I could see Pitt going with someone who is exceptionally strong on the academic side. But today, we need the superman who can do all of those things. Above all, what we really need is a leader." Roddey also plans to give update reports on the search at the Feb. 22 Board of Trustees meeting and the March 12 Faculty Assembly meeting.

— Bruce Steele and Mike Sajna


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