ASU chancellor search gears up

List complete with 49 names, committee set to start paring

The applicant list for Arkansas State University’s chancellor position now has nearly 50 names, including an internal candidate and another two currently in Arkansas.

Now, the applications are in the hands of Arkansas State University System President Chuck Welch and his 21-member-appointed search committee. The group will meet in a closed session at 3 p.m. Monday in its first meeting since the April 17 priority deadline, said Jeff Hankins, the system’s vice president for strategic communications and economic development.

The committee will begin considering the 47 who applied before the priority deadline and another two who submitted applications later in the week. Panel members likely will start paring the 49 to a more manageable list, said Mike McDaniel, ASU’s faculty senate president, communication disorders professor and a search committee member.

“I don’t think we’ll be doing much interviewing Monday,” he said. “The timeline is getting short. I suspect [the] week will be real active.”

Welch, who was not made available by Hankins for an interview, has said that he would like to have the finalists visit the 14,085-student campus in early May and have the new chancellor start by July. Welch will select the next chancellor, who then will have to be approved by the board of trustees. The Jonesboro campus is holding its commencement May 13.

The new leader will arrive as Arkansas’ colleges and universities prepare for a change in state funding that will be based less on enrollment and more on student success. The new funding model, which starts July 1, 2018, will reward the state’s public higher-education institutions whose students progress to graduation.

The chosen candidate also will take on the task of devising a new strategic plan for the Jonesboro school, the state’s second-largest, Welch has said.

The ASU System’s administration is “very pleased” with the pool of applicants, Hankins said.

McDaniel said he has started a spreadsheet to help him compare the candidates’ experiences with the job requirements listed in the advertisement. The position announcement includes responsibilities such as collaborating among campus constituencies; fostering a culture of

academic research, discovery and innovation; running an efficient university and seeking innovative opportunities to earn revenue for the university.

Meetings of the search committee, an advisory body, will not be public under Attorney General’s Opinion 2014-124, Hankins said. The opinion, which is nonbinding, states that an advisory body’s records are subject to the Freedom of Information Act, but its meetings are not.

The incoming chancellor will replace Doug Whitlock, an appointed interim who came out of retirement to fill the post Sept. 1 after the university’s former leader left without a severance package. The former chancellor, Tim Hudson, resigned before the fall 2016 semester after he and his wife, once the school’s part-time study-abroad director, were the subjects of several internal audits that unearthed reports of nepotism and conflicts of interest.

Hudson earned $360,000 annually, and Whitlock — whose contract runs through June — has an annual salary of $305,000.

In his appointment so far, Whitlock has helped provide stability and ensure that all campus constituencies are involved and informed, McDaniel and Welch have said. Recently, the interim chancellor has moved the Shared Governance Oversight Committee away from the provost’s office and into the chancellor’s office, McDaniel said.

He added that he hopes the university will continue making progress and find its place with its incoming chancellor.

“I wish us well and hope that we make good informed decisions,” he said of the search.