Chancellor hunt begins despite delays

IU President Adam Herbert's goal was to announce the next IUB chancellor in late May. But the search to find a replacement for Interim Chancellor Ken Gros Louis is taking longer than expected. \nIn fact, it's only just begun. \nThe search committee released a job announcement for the position of IUB chancellor and senior vice president for academic affairs during the first week of April. Among the many qualifications listed, the best candidate is someone committed to academic excellence, understands the complexity of a higher education institution like IU, can communicate effectively and be an "articulate advocate for IU." This person must also have experience with budget preparation and must be eligible for appointment as a tenured professor in one of IUB's academic departments. Prospective candidates have until May to respond, and the committee won't start examining them until June 15, said Trevor Brown, chairman of the search committee and dean of the School of Journalism. \n"We are literally in the beginning stages of the formal process," Brown said. \nThe first reason for being behind schedule, Brown said, is timing. Typically, searches of this nature begin in August or September. This one began in January, a year after Sharon Brehm stepped down from her chancellorship and Ken Gros Louis returned from his two-and-a-half-year retirement to serve as interim chancellor. Because of the late start, the search will extend into the summer, which Brown said could cause further delays. \n"It's difficult to keep a committee going during the summer because so many are away," Brown said. "Many of the committee members are on 10-month appointments and use the summer to protect their time for their own research. They aren't on salary at that point. We're all concerned about how we can keep the search going during summer months." \nBrown said the other reason for delay was the selection of the search firm. Normally the committee has no part in choosing a search firm, but Herbert gave committee members the option of finding their own search firm to aid them throughout the process. They interviewed representatives from four different firms before reaching a decision, which Brown said was a good learning experience for committee members but which also took a lot of time.\nIf all goes according to plan, committee members will travel off campus to conduct interviews with 10 to 20 potential candidates this summer. Then, by early next fall, they hope to have narrowed down that list so they can be in a position to recommend the three top candidates to Herbert by December. That will end the search committee's job, and Herbert will ultimately decide who will serve as his right-hand adviser.\n"He or she will be someone with a deep understanding of the multiple roles of a 21st-century public research university, with strong academic credentials, a commitment to excellence in teaching, to faculty governance and to the research enterprise," Herbert said in an e-mail. "He or she will have the ability to communicate well with faculty, students, alumni, community and elected leaders." \nIn short, Herbert said the ideal candidate is someone like Gros Louis. \n"Ken has offered extraordinary service to IU and has set the bar very high for his successor," Herbert said. "He will be extremely difficult to replace for a variety of reasons. Ken has exceptional skills as an administrator and he has a deep understanding of public higher education and of IU's special culture."\nDavid Daleke, president of the Bloomington Faculty Council and member of the search committee, said he believes the faculty is looking for someone like Gros Louis as well. \n"We're not looking for a clone of Ken, but someone who has strengths in similar areas," Daleke said. \nThose strengths, according to Daleke, are the ability to deal with multiple constituencies such as faculty, students, staff and school deans; having a commitment-shared governance, to perpetuate IU's long tradition of partnership between faculty and administration for policy-making and goal setting; and a deep involvement in academia. \n"We want someone who's open and warm and can communicate well with the public," Daleke said. "We want someone leading the campus who is well-attuned to students' needs. We would like all our students to feel an ownership in this University, and one of the ways to accomplish this is to have our top administrator embrace the student body and involve them in the decision making process." \nGros Louis said he plans to go back into retirement once the search is complete, but until then he has no problem remaining at IU. \n"The virtue of staying at a place for a long time is that you grow older with people," Gros Louis said. "And probably the greatest pleasure of my job is getting to know students and staying in touch with them. I certainly don't mind my continuing until President Herbert finds the right person, in his opinion, to succeed me."\nAn open forum for faculty to give their input to the search committee will take place from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the Whittenberger Auditorium in the Indiana Memorial Union.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Lindsay Lyon at lrlyon@indiana.edu.