University Times

Eight university presidents and one provost are still in the running for the Pitt chancellor's job, chancellor search committee chairperson James C. Roddey said this week.

"More than one" of the nine candidates are women, Roddey acknowledged. Another search committee member said the list includes three women.

The committee is on schedule to complete interviews and background checks of candidates by early May, said Roddey, who is a Pitt trustee and managing general partner of Allegheny Media.

The committee plans to trim the list to four candidates and bring those people to the Pittsburgh campus sometime in May to meet with groups of trustees, faculty, staff, students, administrators and alumni.

Roddey said the committee has not yet drawn up a list of people to invite for interviews with the four candidates. But he said the list "will be similar to what we had in the last [chancellor] search" in 1991, when candidates were interviewed by representatives of numerous Pitt constituencies and groups, including the University Senate, Staff Association Council and Student Government Board.

The search committee would like the four semi-finalists to visit at least one of Pitt's four regional campuses, Roddey said. But even if meetings are limited to Pittsburgh, regional campus representatives will have the opportunity to interview the candidates, he said.

During the first or second week of June, the search committee plans to recommend two or three unranked final candidates to Board of Trustees' leaders. The plan is for the board to formally elect the new chancellor at its June 20 annual meeting, Roddey said.

So far, the 25 search committee members have kept the names of chancellor candidates secret, although Roddey said this month that the committee made unsuccessful approaches to Colin Powell, retired Army general and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Donna Shalala, U.S. secretary of Health, Education and Welfare.

— Bruce Steele