Presidential searches kick into high gear

Three finalists for the position of president at Southwest Missouri State University were made public at the Jan. 21 meeting of the university board of governors.

Presidential Search Committee Vice Chair Thomas Strong said the field contains the strongest candidates out of the field of 59 applicants.

The three candidates come have a wide variety of backgrounds.

• David Belcher, vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock since July 2003, who previously served as dean of the College of Arts and Letters at SMSU. He holds a doctorate in musical arts from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester.

• Michael T. Nietzel, provost at the University of Kentucky, who has served as chair of the UK psychology department and served as a professor in the UK College of Law. Nietzel earned a doctorate in psychology from the University of Illinois in 1973.

• John D. Sellars is senior vice president for institutional advancement at Syracuse University. He has served as a consultant to the University of Missouri, the Thompson Foundation and Boy Scouts of America, and he holds a doctorate in higher education administration and organizational theory from MU.

Strong said the next step for the finalists is immersion in the SMSU community.

“The candidates will be interviewed by the board of governors in separate visits to SMS,” he said. “They will spend two days here in our area; they will visit the West Plains campus, the Mountain Grove campus, the Springfield campus and the Springfield community. They will be interviewed by the board, (outgoing president) Dr. (John) Keiser, members of the faculty, members of the staff and members of the student body, as well as community leaders.”

The interview process will take place in early to mid-February, and the university hopes to have the new president chosen by the March 18 board meeting, Strong said. The new president will take over July 1.

Drury University

Drury University’s search for a new president to replace the retiring John Moore Jr. is proceeding at a quicker pace following a suggestion from the Boston-based consulting firm that is working with the university in the search process. Isaacson Miller Inc. representative Barbara Stevens said the new president should be announced in the spring rather than the fall.

“(Stevens) advised us that that’s not normally how it’s done; there’s normally a clean break,” said search committee chair John Beuerlein. “She said the timetable that we originally set up as a committee would put us at the tail end of this year’s candidates and very early for next year’s candidates, and she said we could find a good candidate and have them get bored with our search if we didn’t accelerate it.”

Beuerlein said the committee went to Moore with the idea, and Moore agreed that if a candidate could be found earlier, he would step aside for the new president. The status of the last year of Moore’s contract has not yet been decided, though it is anticipated that Moore will serve in a consulting capacity.

Beuerlein added that the university is not worried about finding a qualified candidate.

“Barbara Stevens said Drury’s profile is such an attractive one that we wouldn’t have any trouble attracting a wide range of candidate interest,” he said, “and judging from the early responses that she’s received, there are already a number of attractive candidates expressing interest.”

Beuerlein said candidate recruitment will continue through March, followed by résumé scrutiny in April and a final recommendation to the board of trustees in May.