University Times

The committee searching for a new Pitt chancellor has narrowed its list to 10 candidates, chairperson James C. Roddey told Faculty Assembly March 12.

"We are down to 10. That could be eight or nine in another week or so as we really begin to press these candidates and tell them that we're going to start the interview process. I would expect that we might lose one or two, but right now we are expecting to have at least nine or 10," said Roddey, a Pitt trustee.

The list includes "some real stars" — among them, several current university presidents, Roddey said. He refused to say whether any internal candidates are on the list, citing the search committee's policy of keeping candidates' identities confidential until the committee announces its four finalists.

As recently as six weeks ago, some committee members were "very concerned" that the search would not yield a sufficient number of outstanding candidates, Roddey said. But since then, some of the people the committee had been pursuing have agreed to be candidates.

"You have to understand how some people agree to be candidates," Roddey said, wryly. "Not everyone says, 'Yes, I will be a candidate.' Some of them say, 'No, I am not a candidate, but I would love to talk to you and I will send you my information.'" Such candidates insist that the search committee not reveal their names publicly. Some ask the committee to identify them only as "consultants to the committee" in case anyone inquires about their status, Roddey told Assembly members.

Within the next two weeks, the committee will begin interviewing the remaining candidates off-campus. Roddey said he will meet with some of them in Atlanta and Miami because of direct flights available to those cities. "Anyone we're seriously interested in will get two interviews and will meet with all [24] of the search committee members before we bring them to campus." The committee plans to cut the list to four candidates and bring those people to the Pittsburgh campus sometime in May to meet with groups of administrators, trustees, faculty, staff and students. "When we finish this process, I don't want anyone to feel that they didn't have an opportunity to have their input," Roddey said. For that reason, he said, the committee will try to bring in candidates in early May. "It's been pointed out to me that if we don't get candidates here in early May, many faculty won't be here," Roddey said.

The search committee chairperson said he liked the idea of taking the candidates to Pitt's four regional campuses for interviews, but he sounded lukewarm about an Assembly member's suggestion that each candidate give a speech to the University community. "I don't know that we want to be that formal or that structured," Roddey said.

After the semi-final four have run the gauntlet of interviews and background checks, the search committee will make its final recommendation of two or three candidates — "any one of which we believe could do the job" — to the Board of Trustees, Roddey said. The plan is for the board to formally elect the new chancellor at its June 20 annual meeting, he said.

Search committee members will do exhaustive background checks on the remaining candidates, rather than trusting that job to Korn/Ferry International, the search firm that Pitt hired to assist in the chancellor search. According to Roddey, the 1991 search that yielded J. Dennis O'Connor as chancellor "simply did not do enough checking. They didn't listen to enough voices and they didn't have enough input.

"The committee itself will do reference and background checks. Too often, this is left to the search firm. And the search firm is being paid to produce a product. They want to come through and look good, and I'm not sure they always do the kind of job you should do on background and reference checks," Roddey said.

He said the committee will do at least 50 background and reference checks on each finalist. "We won't just talk to the references they give us. We will seek out references, people who have been on the other side of controversy with these candidates, people who have been their peers, who have been their subordinates, who have been their superiors." Regarding the search committee, Roddey admitted that he feared the search was "doomed" when he learned in September that the group would include two-dozen people representing various constituencies.

Board of Trustees leaders considered over-ruling the University's guidelines on senior administrative searches and appointing an eight-member committee, Roddey said. "But then we decided that the University had already had enough controversy, and we didn't need another one about the search." Roddey said that, to his surprise and relief, committee members put aside their individual agendas and have done an outstanding job. "The reason our committee has worked well together is because, universally, they all understand the importance of this search, how serious it is." Assembly member Christina Bratt Paulston, a faculty representative on the search committee, said she has gained respect for trustees serving on the committee. "They are intelligent, to my surprise, I have to tell you. They work hard," she said. "I have to plead with them not to have meetings before 8 o'clock in the morning. When we argue, it is with mutual respect."

— Bruce Steele