Wright State hires company to help find new provost
Chief academic officer to leave June 30; public forum set for Friday.
Wright State University officials are beginning the search for the school’s next provost.
The university is aiming to find a provost in time for the new administrator to start at the school on July 1, the first day of the fiscal year and the same day president Cheryl Schrader will celebrate her oneyear anniversary at Wright State. The provost is the chief academic officer for the university and is the second in command.
The university has hired the search firm Greenwood Asher to assist with the search, according to an email sent to campus on Monday. The firm, which is based in Miramar Beach, Florida, has assisted in searches for Ohio State University, the University of Oregon and several other colleges.
This news organization has submitted a public records request for a copy of Wright State’s contract with Greenwood Asher. Nominations for the provost position can be made on a dedicated web page for the search.
Typically, when colleges hire a search firm they can shield the names of candidates from public records requests. Wright State took a similar approach with applicants for the president’s job, until a search committee narrowed down the pool to three people.
As in that search, a committee including Wright State administrators, faculty and students will consider provost candidates. The committee will be led by faculty senate president Travis Doom and WSU trustee and Fifth Third Bank executive Stephanie Green, according to the university.
Together the search firm and committee will host a forum on the provost search at 9:30 a.m. Friday in the student union’s Apollo Room. The forum will be streamed live on Wright State’s website.
Outgoing provost Tom Sudkamp announced in December that he would step down on June 30. He was appointed provost for a three-year term in 2015 under then-president David Hopkins, who resigned abruptly in March as the university struggled with budget problems.
Wright State trustees slashed more than $30.8 million from the school’s budget in June as an attempt to begin correcting years of overspending.