NWACC official in line for UA position

HOPE — The search for a chancellor to run the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope-Texarkana has narrowed to four people.

They are:

• Brian Berry, Vice Chancellor for Student Services at the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope-Texarkana.

• Timothy Cornelius, academic vice president of career and workforce education at Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville.

• Christine Holt, chief of staff of the University of Missouri System.

• Jeff Jochems, a part-time covid-19 lead case manager at Ozarks Technical Community College in Springfield, Mo., and who recently retired from a career in higher education.

The University of Arkansas System and the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope-Texarkana issued announcements about the search on Wednesday.

Each of the candidates will make a presentation to the community. The presentations will be livestreamed at 3:45 p.m. on different days on the university’s UAHT.edu website, Facebook page and YouTube channel.

Each of the invited candidates will make a visit, and each visit will last a full day. The plan is to hold the visits to just the Hope campus because the schedule for each of the visits will be packed, said Nate Hinkel, director of communications for the University of Arkansas System. He added representatives from the Texarkana campus will be involved.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic and social distancing practices, limited seating will be available to attend the events live.

A search committee did a national search. John Hollis, the university’s search committee chairman, said its goal is to make recommendations to University of Arkansas System President Donald Bobbitt on April 23.

The University of Arkansas trustees will vote on Bobbitt’s choice at a date to be determined. The board’s next regular meeting is May 26-27 at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff campus. But the trustees could hold a special meeting before to finalize the hiring of a new chancellor.

Cornelius, the candidate from Northwest Arkansas, will visit April 12, followed the next day by Berry, the in-house candidate. The two candidates from Missouri — Jochems and Holt — will visit April 19 and April 20, respectively.

Of the out-of-state candidates, Jochems has an Arkansas connection. He holds an educational doctorate in higher education leadership degree from the University of Arkansas.

Holt is the only woman and Black person on the list of finalists.

Two of the candidates — Holt and Cornelius — have law degrees.

The previous chancellor, Chris Thomason, left the position in the summer to join the University of Arkansas System administration in Little Rock as vice president for planning and development. Laura Clark, vice chancellor of academic affairs at the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope-Texarkana, has been working as interim chancellor since July, according to the University of Arkansas System.