Search for president underway

The search has officially begun for Georgia College’s next president.

The Special Regents Search Committee, 10 members of the campus-based Presidential Search and Screen Committee, as well as the search firm, have officially been put in place and were announced to the public on Friday, Aug. 26.

The next step in the process will be for the campus-based Presidential Search and Screen Committee to meet and formulate a position paper that states what they are looking for in the new president. Rob Watts, who has been on the staff for a number of past presidential searches, and is now currently working in the USG Chancellors office, says that the campus-based search committee works hand-in-hand with the Board of Regents committee to insure that the right president will be selected.

“When the committee (the Special Regents Search Committee), comes up with their idea, they send that to the Board of Regents and Chancellor’s office to make sure what they want is consistent with what the Board of Regents and the chancellor wants,” Watts said. “It’s a cooperative process, so the board makes sure the committee is looking for the right president from its point of view.”

Stas Preczewski, GC’s interim president, predicts that the advertisement for the position will be posted some time next month. Once it is posted widely to the higher education community, applications will come in and will be reviewed and narrowed down by the campus-based Presidential Search and Screen Committee. The executive search firm, Heidrick & Struggles, based in Atlanta, will bring in a large chunk of those applications, both nationally and internationally, and will screen these applications to make sure that they are qualified to apply for the job.

The first round of interviews, in order to narrow down the number of applicants, will take place off-campus. A fairly large chunk of applicants, anywhere from 10 to 20, are called to meet with the committee for a face-to-face interview.

Harry Battson, associate vice president for strategic communications, says that most of these interviews take place in the airport, usually in a conference-type room the airport has for lease.

“They would exchange information about their background and how it might apply to Georgia College & State University, and then they would have their questions about the university itself,” Battson said. “Then from that process the committee members get a pretty good feel at least for whether they think that individual would then be a good person to bring in and let the whole campus community interact with them.” Once the first round of interviews are concluded, the committee will sit down and narrow the list of applicants down to a smaller number of about six to eight people. These finalists will be asked to visit the campus for a day, separately.

Preczewski says that during this time many different groups, such as faculty groups, students groups and even town-hall-style meetings, will evaluate each applicant.

“The purpose of that is to see the person on the campus, let the person see the campus, let the campus see the person, ask questions, interact, to make sure that the fit works both ways,” Preczewski said.

The process can take anywhere from six to nine months. Preczewski predicts that the application process will conclude some time before Thanksgiving, and that the committee will review applications and make recommendations for the first round of interviews. He also believes that those interviews will take place starting late January or early February and the finalist will visit the campus sometime in late February or early March. After these final interviews are made on campus, recommendations will be sent to the chancellor and the Special Board of Regents Search Committee. Preczewski expects there to be an announcement of the new president between April and June.

Posted by Lauren Davidson on Sep 1 2011. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.