Panel to help find new university chief

University of Arkansas System President Donald Bobbitt has named 17 people to a committee to help him find a new chancellor for the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith.

The committee includes representatives from the faculty, administration, staff and alumni.

A member of the University of Arkansas board of trustees, which governs the UA System, and a member of the advisory UA-Fort Smith board of visitors will also be on the panel.

The search committee will also have a representative from Fort Smith, which is Arkansas’ second-largest city with 86,209 residents.

Chancellor Paul Beran left Aug. 31 to take a job as executive director and chief executive officer of the South Dakota Higher Education Board of Regents. Beran came to Fort Smith in 2006 from Northwestern Oklahoma State University in Alva, 14 miles south of the Kansas border. He served as president of the 2,200-student university from 2001-2006.

Bobbitt appointed Edward Serna, chief of staff and vice chancellor for strategic initiatives at the Fort Smith campus, as interim chancellor.

The committee will work with Bobbitt to find a replacement. Bobbitt will recommend someone to the UA trustees.

The goal will be to select a new chancellor in a timely manner, Bobbitt said in a statement, but the process will not be constrained to a strict timeline.

Margaret Tanner, associate provost for academic affairs at the Fort Smith campus, will lead the committee. She said in a statement that a professional search firm will be hired to help the committee.

Besides Tanner, the search panel members are:

■ Tommy Boyer, UA trustee, of Fayetteville.

■ Paul Hankins, dean of the College of Communications, Languages, Arts and Social Sciences.

■ Kimi Hayden, representing campus staff.

■ Debbie Koch, associate professor of nursing.

■ Jeremy May, representing the university’s alumni.

■ George McGill, mayor-elect of Fort Smith and member of the university’s board of visitors.

■ Judy McReynolds, member of the university’s foundation board.

■ Melissa Rust, representing the UA System.

■ Kevin Settle, vice mayor of Fort Smith.

■ David Stevens, dean of students.

■ Todd Timmons, professor of history.

■ Micki Voelkel, interim dean, College of Applied Science and Technology.

■ Robert Wilson, controller, Office of Finance and Administration.

■ David Woolly, superintendent of Alma School District. ■ Julie Wright, associate professor of accounting.

■ Linus Yu, department head, College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

The school, which originally opened in 1928 with an enrollment of 34 students, has 6,569 this semester, according to the latest figures available from the Arkansas Department of Higher Education.