Chancellor search enters final months

Patience has marked the search for a new Bloomington campus chancellor since it began in January, but as IU President Adam Herbert's self-imposed deadline approaches, people are eager to fill the office ‑ but with the right person.\nHerbert has said he hopes to appoint the chancellor by Thanksgiving, almost two years after Ken Gros Louis came out of retirement and agreed to serve as interim chancellor until administrators filled the position.\nThe timetable to name a chancellor by the November IU board of trustees meeting is only two months away, and according to Gros Louis, things are going as planned.\n"The committee started meeting last January, and typically a search of this nature would take 9 or 10 months," said Gros Louis. "The speed in any search process is often dictated by the calendars of the candidates and their availability to be interviewed."\nBut, in spite of continuing progress, it is unlikely a new chancellor will take over duties by December as the search committee pledged, said IU trustee Patrick Shoulders.\nThis is one reason the chancellor position was not quickly filled and the trustees encouraged the newly-hired Herbert to concentrate on other campus issues, said Patrick Shoulders, IU trustee and alumni representative for the chancellor search committee.\n"The trustees didn't believe that the top three administrative positions within IU could have been filled with no IU history or connection," said Shoulders. "The trustees encouraged new president Herbert to take time and address other issues because he would need individuals to report to him who had a great deal of history and how things work at IU."\nOne of those individuals with history and experience at IU was Gros Louis. Herbert learned a great deal from Gros Louis after he was appointed interim chancellor, said IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre.\n"Ken Gros Louis guided and assisted (Herbert) in the process of getting to know the culture of Indiana University," MacIntyre said.\nIn 2003, when then-Chancellor Sharon Brehm stepped down, IU was swearing in Herbert, who had no previous experience at IU. Quickly hiring a new chancellor gave the potential that three major positions for IU would be filled by people with no history or experience with IU.\nIn the two years since his appointment, Herbert has established the connection and experience needed to help guide the search, Shoulders said. \nThe search committee, comprised of 23 faculty members from four of IU's campuses, hired the help of Jerry Baker from the search firm of Baker Parker in Atlanta to assist the committee in finding qualified applicants on a national level.\nHiring search firms to find candidates on a national level for important administrative positions is a common practice for the university, said Gros Louis.\nShoulders added that Baker was hired for his expertise, and serves as sort of a headhunter for other areas of the nation.\nEight candidates from around the country have completed interviews, though Shoulders, MacIntyre and Gros Louis would not release any names.