EMU names panel for presidential search

News Staff Reporter

Eastern Michigan University on Friday narrowed the focus in its search for a new president by announcing the 16 members of a search advisory committee.

Dennis Beagen, department head of EMU's Communication and Theatre Arts, will chair the Regents Advisory Committee, which includes five faculty members, two students, an assistant dean, an administrator, several EMU staff members and a regent emeritus.

The committee will work with a consultant named earlier in the week, Academic Search Consultant Services of Washington, D.C. The firm will be paid $50,000 plus the cost of some expenses, said Jan Brandon, one of two EMU regents coordinating the search.

The committee and consultant are charged with conducting a national search and interviewing candidates, then recommending three to five presidential finalists to the EMU Board of Regents, which will make the final decision.

The new president will replace Samuel Kirkpatrick, who resigned last summer to take an unpaid position with a Washington, D.C., educational organization. He left after months of controversy over a new president's house and was given a resignation package worth more than $500,000. Craig Willis, a retired college president from Pennsylvania, is the interim president.

Brandon and Regent Steve Gordon coordinated hiring the consultant, but have placed the day-to-day duties and decisions about the search in the hands of Beagen. Members of the search committee were selected by Beagen, with help from the two regents. Gordon and Brandon will continue to serve as advisers to the committee, but will not be voting members, Brandon said. Regents won't have a say until the search committee delivers them the candidate pool.

"We wanted to do it a new way," Brandon said. When Kirkpatrick was hired in 2000, regents were heavily involved in the search process. Four of the nine members on the search committee were regents.

"We felt there was a desire on the part of the greater community and the greater campus to have a say about the future direction of the university," she said. "We are putting a lot of trust in Dennis and in the folks on the committee."

In addition to Beagen, members of the Regents Advisory Committee are:

Anthony Adamski, associate professor of technology studies; Daryl Barton, associate professor of marketing and law; Mary Bigler, professor of teacher education; Michael Brabec, professor of chemistry; Polly Buchanan, associated dean of health and human services; Rachel Cheng, university librarian; Edward Davis II, EMU junior majoring in political science and sociology; Rhonda DeLong, director of EMU Web Communications; Patricia Harris, EMU human resource consultant; Courtney McAnuff, vice president for enrollment services; Richard Robb, EMU regent emeritus; Arthur Timko, general manager of WEMU-FM radio; Larry Warren, chair of the EMU Foundation board; James Webb, EMU alumnus and chairman of AON Risk Services of Michigan; and Michelle Williamson, EMU senior majoring in social studies and secondary education.

Academic Search was one of three firms interviewed by telephone, said Brandon. The field was narrowed and Ann Die Hasselmo, managing director of Academic Search, visited EMU, Brandon said. Hasselmo will identify potential candidates, guide the search committee through the process and compile the applications, Brandon said.

Academic Search oversaw the appointment of a new president at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, and has assisted in presidential searches for Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, Macalester College in Minnesota, Skidmore College in New York and the University of Utah. It is currently conducting the search for a president at Adrian College.

Janet Miller can be reached at jmiller@annarbornews.com or (734) 994-6827.

© 2004 Ann Arbor News. Used with permission