Missouri State University’s presidential search committee still has a few weeks left to get in shape. The heavy lifting, members know, doesn’t start until April.
At an initial meeting Feb. 6, 15 committee members met with Bill Funk, owner of Dallas-based academic search firm R. William Funk & Associates, and outlined a process that could put a new president in place by July 1. It’s an ambitious timeline, Funk said, but it can be accomplished.
“It’s going to be an all-out blitz,” said Funk, whose firm is being paid roughly $100,000 of the MSU committee’s $175,000 search budget. “The only part of these searches that you cannot rush is the first part, and that’s when you’re developing the pool of candidates.”
MSU is casting its net for the right person to succeed President Michael Nietzel. Advertisements for the position are ready and scheduled to run in national higher education publications, said MSU Board of Governors Chairman Brian Hammons, while search firm and committee members are spreading the word.
“We have been researching folks and targeting individuals we think would be good candidates,” said Funk, whose firm has placed 50 sitting university presidents, according to
www.rwilliamfunk.com.
Funk has placed four of the sitting presidents at other Missouri Valley Conference universities: Joanne Glasser, Bradley; David Maxwell, Drake; Daniel Bradley, Indiana State; and Benjamin Allen, Northern Iowa.
Search committee chairman Mike Duggan said March 30 is the soft deadline for applicants in preparation for Nietzel’s stated departure of Dec. 31.
“We’ll accept applications until the announcement is made,” he quipped.
Committee members will review the applications through a secure Web site, Duggan said, and discuss the applications received during an April 9 conference call. An April 17 meeting will bring more discussion and reduce the candidate pool to approximately eight semifinalists, he said. By the end of April, the committee hopes to conduct individual meetings with each semifinalist.
“A shorter campaign is better than a longer campaign, as sometimes you’ll get waning enthusiasm from candidates if it drags out,” Duggan said. “Also, it’s to our advantage to have a new president that can start the school year on the first of July.”
Truman State University Board of Governors Secretary Ken Read, who chaired the search committee that recently hired Evangel University graduate Troy Paino as Truman’s new president, said his search committee learned the importance of coordination quickly.
“You need a search firm or a great coordinator if you don’t have time. There are no shortcuts,” he said.
Truman’s search process took close to a year, Read said, and only used a search firm for basic services, such as background checks. The 15-member committee reviewed 66 applications and narrowed its field down to Paino, who had been serving as Truman’s provost since 2008.
Duggan said that if there were a strong likelihood of MSU hiring an in-house candidate, the university would have exhausted that possibility before hiring a search firm. However, Hammons said the expanded pool of applicants Funk & Associates brings could lend credibility to an in-house choice.
“It’s possible the candidate is within,” Hammons said. “But sometimes you don’t know that until you’ve looked at all the other options.”
Funk believes the right candidate for the presidency will be drawn to MSU because of the strides it has made in the past five to 10 years, including a name change from Southwest Missouri State.
“I think the name change has made it come from a directional school, one with a regionalized, local mission, to a school with a statewide mission,” he said.
Funk also said Jordan Valley Innovation Center, the JQH Arena and the Juanita K. Hammons Hall for the Performing Arts are all likely to be attractive to applicants.
“There’s a sense of positive momentum,” he said. “This is not a turnaround situation, and the next president will have the opportunity to continue that momentum.”[[In-content Ad]]
