A search committee responsible for selecting the next president of Nicholls met for the first time yesterday to finalize a timeline, decide on a selection process and hold a public forum to gather input from the community. Donald Ayo, Nicholls’ current president, announced in October that he would retire, effective June 30, 2003.
The ULS Board rules state that the search committee, as its first order of business, will decide the selection procedure used and timetable following. Members of the search committee were appointed by the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors for the ULS. The search committee is composed of 15 members.
Voting members include ULS board members Marty Chabert, Andre Coudrain, Eunice Smith, Carl Shetler, Robert Davidge, Winfred Sibille, Gordon Pugh (chairman of the ULS board) and Jessica Clarke (student ULS board member from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette). Nicholls faculty member Tim Lindsley will also serve as a voting member of the committee. Donald “Boysie” Bollinger, chairman and chief executive of Bollinger Shipyards Inc., was recently appointed to the ULS board by Governor Mike Foster, and will also serve on the search committee. However, he will not be a voting member until the ULS Board confirms his appointment in December.
Non-voting members include Sally Clausen, who will chair the committee; Glenny Lee Buquet, local representative of the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education; Al Lippman, former ULS board member and Bill Riviere, former president of the Nicholls Alumni Federation.
Ayo will not have a role in the selection process.
“Dr. Ayo has requested not to be involved in the process. I have sought his advice on a couple of issues and am keeping him informed,” Clausen said.
The committee is expected to meet about four to six times. Advertising will begin on a national level once the committee has established the minimum requirements for candidates. According to Board rules, a candidate is “expected to have earned a doctorate from an accredited institution and have successful experience in an institution of higher education.”
In exceptional cases, candidates lacking a specified qualification may be considered if they have superior records of leadership and accomplishments. Based on community and university input, more criteria could be added to the requirements for the position of university president.
The committee adopted the tentative timeline that was prepared by the board and advertising was discussed.
Advertising will then begin as this national search for Nicholls’ university president continues. The search committee, in their tentative time line have noted that ads will be placed in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Women in Higher Education, Black Issues in Higher Education, The Baton Rouge Advocate, The Times Picayune, The Houma Courier, The Thibodaux Daily Comet and other publications as determined by the committee.
According to the ULS, the application deadline will be proposed by the staff to be on February 10 so that by July 1, 2003 a new university president can be in place. Normally, the selection process continues as the search committee meets again to narrow down the group of applicants and select semifinalists. Background checks will be done on applicants to insure that they meet all criteria. Semifinalists will be brought to Nicholls for interviews by the committee. Interviews will be held in a public capacity where the audience will be allowed to submit questions to the candidates.
Finalists will then be selected and another public interview will take place. This was the selection process carried out at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. The ULS staff proposed a similar process to the search committee, and it was determined that that method would be used.
After the committee narrows down their choice, Clausen will then make a recommendation to the board. Voting members of the board will make the final decision, and it will be announced at the Board meeting on April 25, 2003.
The ULS will facilitate the entire process, and Nicholls’ department of student affairs will serve as the liaison between the Board and University.
“The board asked Dr. Ayo to name an office that would handle some of the details of the process, and my office (Academic Affairs) was named as the one to handle certain arrangements in the process,” Alice Pecoraro, vice president of academic affairs, said.
An institutional review of Nicholls by a team of external consultants will evaluate the divisions of the University prior to the new presidential selection.
“We suspect that the institutional review will occur sometime in the beginning of January, and will be made available to the public in the form of a report,” Clausen said. The ULS has engaged in a contract with Dr. James Fischer, an educational consultant from Baltimore, to review all aspects of the University with a team of consultants.
“My understanding is that they (the institutional review team) will determine some strengths and weaknesses of the major divisions of the university,” Pecoraro said.
“This way when the new president is selected, he or she will have a review by an external team to use in planning.”
ULS will handle some of the costs of the institutional review, but it will cost Nicholls around $30,000 to $35,000.
Clausen has promised that faculty, staff, student and community input will play a role in the selection process. Several staff members have various opinions on what qualities should be looked for in a university president.
“I think they (the search committee) will be looking for someone who has the vision and leadership skills to build on the excellent foundation established by Dr. Ayo,” Pecoraro said.
Eugene Dial, vice president of student affairs, said that the ideal quality of a university president is “to know how to lead while providing leadership.”
Dial said he expects the committee to look for a student-oriented president since the University wants students to become leaders and be prepared for future leadership goals.
Ayo said that Father Theodore Hesburgh, former president of Notre Dame, spoke of the true idea of a university president in his book about leadership.
“A university president has to be someone who can be out on Saturday night cheering at the football game with the alumni association and fans, and on Sunday afternoons can put on a black tie and listen to chamber music while also doing everything else in between,” Hesburgh wrote in his book.
Ayo stressed the importance of academic credentials, courage, and the willingness to move the university forward as necessary qualities in a university president.
A university president must also be willing to take risks after consulting with colleagues, have skills working with various constituents and have background in working with insufficient financial resources, Ayo said.
The presidential search is expected to be held nationally; however, past Nicholls presidents have all had some tie to the University. Charles Elkins became the first president of Francis T. Nicholls State College in 1956 after serving as the first and only dean of Francis T. Nicholls Junior College. Vernon Galliano, who took over in 1963, was a native of Cut Off and had served as the dean of the Division of Education. Donald Ayo became Nicholls’ president in 1983 after serving as dean of the Division of Sciences and later vice president and provost.
“I think it depends on the individual. I think the selection committee will have an open mind in reference to that,” Ayo said.
“I think the most important thing is that the new president understands and supports the University mission, but I would personally look in-state first,” Dial said.
“A university is not just here to educate but also to play a part in the economic development of the community. Someone can certainly come in and learn about the area, but it would be an advantage to already know that.”
Dial said he expects the tra
nsition to be very smooth since the president’s role is to help the University community achieve necessary actions but he or she does not make all the decisions alone.
“The president provides vision but the day to day processes of the university are greatly impacted by the larger community including faculty and staff,” Dial said.
Ayo expressed interests to remain involved in the University, but not in an official capacity.
“I think it’s a wonderful atmosphere to retire in the University community because there are so many stimulating things to do,” he said.
Editors note: Portions of this article were updated by Marie Ory, Editor. Also, see related story on page 4 about the public forum in the search for the new president.