UCF outlines provost search

A proposed timeline and position announcement were the key items on the agenda at the first meeting of the UCF provost search committee on Thursday.

Peter Panousis, dean of the College of Sciences and chair of the committee, emphasized that the search committee is not selecting the new provost, but providing choices for President John Hitt.

"The objective of this committee is to provide the names — typically, two to five candidates that we find suitable to be the next provost," Panousis said. "The names will be unranked and provided to the president. He makes the final decision."

The committee approved the position announcement that will be sent out Monday and will be posted in The Chronicle of Higher Education on Feb. 19. The priority application date is set as March 25.

They also agreed on a four step process of searching for and narrowing down the pool of qualified candidates.

The first step is finding candidates and determining whether they do or do not meet the requirements for the position. Robert Lawless, senior consultant from Academic Search, will be helping the search committee in the process.

In the second step, the committee will meet and determine preferences they would like to see when considering a candidate for the third step. This will be done at the next meeting on March 29.

The third step involves conducting "airport," or preliminary screening, interviews. The committee will interview a maximum of 10 candidates who met the standards within the previous steps starting April 12.

The last step will be bringing the candidates to interview on campus. The number of candidates is limited to five and will be selected on the basis of their airport interviews and the input from references.

Interviews are scheduled to take place between April 21 and May 6.     

From there, the committee will assemble the list of acceptable candidates in an unranked order for Hitt's final decision.

Hitt met with the committee members briefly as well and thanked them for their willingness to serve on the committee and hopes to have the right person by commencement.

He expressed his belief that the timeline set forth by the committee is ambitious, but attainable and is glad to hear that the committee will continue to search until the right person is selected.

"I don't think we want to get ourselves to the point that we are so concerned with wrapping this up that we compromise on the quality of individual we want," Hitt said. "It's so important that we have a strong and effective provost that I think we will keep going until we think we've got a worthy successor to Terry Hickey, who has done a marvelous job during his seven years as provost."

Hitt said that he was looking for someone who would have tenure as a professor. Someone with experience at an institution with a medical school is also highly desirable, but not a requirement.

"I'm looking for someone who has demonstrated and has successful experience in line administration within a large and complex setting," Hitt said.

Andrick Lewis, student body vice president, sits on the committee and said he believes his part in the process is to find someone who is personable and keeps the students' needs in mind.

"I think it's my job to ensure that the incoming provost has a keen eye for catering to students' needs in terms of academics, student development and the whole array of student activities that we have on campus," Lewis said.

The search is being paid for by the president's office, but the committee does not know how much the budget will be. Since the cost of airfare, hotels and food varies, the committee is prepared to pay whatever it costs, according to John Schell, vice president and chief of staff for UCF.

Information about the provost search committee can be found on the president's office Web site, where the provost position announcement and committee list can be found.
Minutes from this meeting will be posted after the March 29 meeting, once the committee has approved them.