The chancellor search will begin this month. It is a national search designed to produce a small number of qualified candidates who will be brought to the campus for meetings with faculty, staff, and students. The candidates will meet with the Board of Trustees, who will eventually identify the person to be named as chancellor. The process will have several steps and will involve a large number of participants along the way.

The first of these participants is a consultant who will assist our search process. He is Dr. Bill Franklin, an associate with Academic Search Consultation Service of Washington, D.C. Dr. Franklin has held several university presidencies and has worked with state and regional associations of higher education institutions. His academic field is sociology. Dr. Franklin has visited our campus several times over the last 20 years and is familiar with the challenges faced by a transitional university such as Arkansas State.

Information about Bill Franklin and his company, Academic Search, is available at www.academic-search.org. This website will be the electronic venue on which information about our search will be posted. Linkages will be created between the ASU website and Academic Search so that prospective candidates may learn more about Arkansas State University, the chancellor’s position, and the search process. These prospective candidates will be participants in the search to varying degrees of involvement, with one of them emerging as our chancellor.

Linkages also will be established to Dr. Bill Franklin. He will receive and compile nominations and applications, provide responses to inquiries from interested parties, distribute information about Arkansas State University, consult Academic Search files for prospective candidates, and identify individuals who may be asked to consider the selection process. He also will work with other associates of the company to identify prospective candidates. His associates will become participants in our process.

Dr. Franklin’s work, conducted at his Washington, D.C., and home offices, will be confidential until the later stages of the process. This is desirable so that prospective candidates, applicants, and nominees can be assured of the privacy of their interest in our opportunity. To facilitate the confidential exchanges between Dr. Franklin and individuals entering the search, their communications will be conducted electronically and by telephone, without the need to direct material through ASU campus offices.

Another participant in the process is Dr. Glen Jones, Presidential Assistant for Diversity Initiatives. Dr. Jones may be reached on campus at 972-3030, by long distance at 800-411-6995, or electronically at gjones@astate.edu. Dr. Jones has agreed to be the campus facilitator for the search process. He will assemble and provide to Dr. Franklin information about the university, community, state and region, statistical data, plans, program descriptions, or any other information that may be requested by prospective candidates. Dr. Jones will fill an important role to verify and assist in creating a diverse and qualified group of candidates to be considered for appointment as chancellor. Dr. Jones also will meet frequently with a Search Advisory Committee, and will serve as chair of the committee.

Participants on the Search Advisory Committee will include representatives from the students, faculty, staff, and administration of the Jonesboro campus, and members of the civic community. These persons will be selected because of their familiarity with campus issues, our history, goals, opportunities, culture, and concerns. They will be highly regarded by their peers and associates. The committee will receive its charge from the president, on behalf of the Board of Trustees, at a meeting next week, and will be asked to observe and respect the confidential nature of the early stages of the search process.

After the organizational meeting the chancellor Search Advisory Committee will be announced publicly. The committee will offer advice to Dr. Franklin and Dr. Jones about the conduct of the search and screening process, about candidate identification and recruitment, and about involvement of the campus and community in the search process and in interviews. The committee will help identify those who will be considered as leading candidates. The committee will develop recommendations to the Board of Trustees, based upon the initial charge to the committee and their observations throughout the process.

An essential group of participants will be students, faculty, staff, and administration of Arkansas State University. A series of public forums will be convened February 15, 16, and 17 to provide an opportunity to give and seek information about the chancellor search process, the purposes for the creation of the new position, and to establish a list of qualities and characteristics thought to be desirable for chancellor candidates.

The forums will be announced by campus e-mail. Individual or group participation may be reserved in any session through an e-mail sign-up system. The forum sessions are designed to be small and interactive. Each session will be initiated by the president who will explain the basis for consideration of the new chancellor’s position. The president will respond to questions about the intent of the Board, the planning for the new administrative organization, or preliminary considerations about the search process. The president will introduce Dr. Bill Franklin who will pose questions and listen to responses from attendees.

Dr. Franklin has reviewed the strategic plan produced by the campus in 2004-05. He will use the stated objectives of the strategic plan as the basis for a question and answer exchange with attendees, using three lines of inquiry:

1. What do you want to see the campus achieve in three to five years?

2. What challenges do you expect we will encounter in the next three to five years as we try to move to the campus vision you foresee?

3. How would you translate that vision and those challenges into the characteristics that would define the leader to help us realize our goals?

Reponses to these questions will be noted and, after all sessions are conducted, will be used by Dr. Franklin to guide the development of a statement of priorities and desired characteristics for the new chancellor. This statement will be published, sent to nomination sources, and used by Dr. Franklin and Academic Search for their recruitment process.

If you are unable to come to the public forums, of if you would prefer to respond to the questions through e-mail, you may reach Dr. Franklin at bjf@academic-search.org.

Following these public forums, a job description and position announcement will be published in national higher education periodicals. Announcements also will be mailed to individuals, organizations, and other universities who may be helpful in identifying and nominating potential candidates. You are welcome to nominate individuals as well, and can direct your recommendations to Dr. Franklin’s e-mail address.

Following these publications the search process will enter a “quiet phase,” in which Dr. Franklin and his associates at Academic Search will begin to recruit prospects for the search. There will be little, if any, campus involvement during this period.

In April, the consultant and the Search Advisory Committee will resume meeting to identify candidates who should receive continued attention, and to follow up on those who show promise as the most appropriate candidates. Strategies will be developed to involve committee members in the recruitment process for selected candidates.

In May and June, leading candidates will be identified, screened and checked, and introduced to the campus, the community, and to the Board of Trustees. You will be asked to participate and share your opinions with the Search Advisory Committee. Committee comments will be conveyed to the Board of Trustees. If the Board is able to identify a candidate to be selected as chancellor as the outcome of this process, authorization to negotiate an appointment will be given to the president and a chancellor will be named.

We would recognize that it is most important to get the right chancellor for Arkansas State University-Jonesboro. It will take all of us to help assure that we identify the right chancellor. Knowing the process ahead, I hope that you will feel welcome to join the search process as a participant, and that you will know that your involvement and comments will be important.

Thank you for reading First Friday. If you have comments about this material or any other aspect of Arkansas State University, please contact me at president@astate.edu.