Naropa extends search for new president

The search for a new president at Naropa University in Boulder has been extended through the spring of 2025 after various factors prompted the university to put the search on hold.

The initial plan was to select someone to take over for Naropa President Charles Lief this fall. The fall of 2024 will mark 12 years since Lief has been president, the longest presidential tenure in Naropa’s nearly 50-year history.

Lief agreed to extend his stay as president through the spring of 2025 as Naropa begins a new search process and hires a new third-party firm to conduct the search, replacing previously hired Spelman Johnson.

“In August 2023, the presidential search was put on hold as we determined, in consultation with Spelman Johnson’s search consultant, that the university needed to address current systemic issues and better develop its readiness to more effectively engage a presidential search process,” according to an update from Naropa’s Board of Trustees.

“During this period, the board also had a transition of leadership that further impacted our ability to restart the search until the new year.”

The Naropa Board of Trustees is leading the presidential search along with a committee made up of board members, faculty, staff and students at Naropa.

Kendra Sandoval, vice chair of the Board and chair of the search committee, said the board and Lief did not have a fixed date in mind for the new president to begin.

The conversation about a new president started when Lief informed the board and the Naropa community in the summer of 2022 that it was time to start thinking about retirement.

When asked about the “systemic issues” referred to by the board, Naropa officials pointed to several upcoming hurdles.

One factor in extending the search was that Naropa’s 50th anniversary will begin in June and the university’s accreditor, the Higher Learning Commission, will be on campus in late April 2025.

“We believed that given the deep relationships that President Lief has with Naropa alumni, donors and other community members that his full presence during most of the anniversary year was beneficial,” Sandoval said in an email.

“Also it is broadly viewed in higher education that a university should not ask a new president to lead an accreditation visit given how much of the work presented to the accreditors has to be completed well before the visit.”

Sandoval said if the timing works out, Naropa would like a new president to be identified by the time of the accreditation visit to participate but not lead the process.

Three other factors are also informing the revised timeline, Sandoval said. First, Naropa’s chief academic officer retired after 28 years and interviews for an interim chief Academic officer are underway.