Trustees may kick off search for a new chancellor

In 2007, members of the group charged with finding a new chancellor were each handed an index card by then UNC-system president Erskine Bowles.

On the card: 12 characteristics the final pick needed to have.

Five years later, a new search committee will go through a similar process to replace Chancellor Holden Thorp after his announcement last week that he will step down in June.

Today, the Board of Trustees might release who those people will be.

When asked Wednesday if the search committee would be released at the meeting, Wade Hargrove, chairman of the Board of Trustees, said the committee is currently being prepared.

“We’ll find out tomorrow,” he said.

The new search committee will do work that will define the core of the University for the next decade, said chemistry professor Joe Templeton, who served on the 2008 chancellor’s search committee as chairman of the faculty.

“While there can be disagreements about what’s important among faculty, staff and students, when it comes to assisting with searching for the new chancellor — there’s no debate,” he said. “Everybody is full speed ahead.”

Templeton said participation in the several months-long process is one of the biggest contributions someone can make to the University, and the process varies depending on the committee’s makeup.

He said the search starts with a list of hundreds that is cut down by a search firm to less than 30 people that the search committee typically looks at extensively.

And throughout the search, the most important quality of a committee member is confidentiality, he said.

“Many of the individuals that might be a wonderful leader for Chapel Hill already hold comparable positions at some other institution,” Templeton said.

“And the first time their name is mentioned outside of the search committee, they’ll withdraw from consideration.”

The first order of business once the search committee is formed is to decide on the search firm, he added.

Templeton said the search firm will gather the initial list of people, which will probably include chancellors or presidents and provosts of other universities, and others beyond the “usual suspects.”

“It could be that either Mitt Romney or Barack Obama isn’t going to have a job next year, so they might be on that list,” he said.

Joni Worthington, spokeswoman for the UNC system, said in an email that system President Thomas Ross will present his own charge to the committee at its first meeting.

Then, guided by that charge, the committee will seek nominations, screen and interview candidates, and submit a list of finalists.

Once approved by the Board of Trustees, a slate of finalists — typically three — will be submitted to Ross for consideration and further vetting, and he will ultimately recommend a candidate to the UNC-system Board of Governors, Worthington said.

Templeton said there are some positions that are almost guaranteed a spot on the search committee.

But whether or not those names will be released today was still unknown late Wednesday night, said chairwoman of the budget, finance and audit committee of the board Sallie Shuping-Russell in an email.

“Suspense is high,” she said.

Contact the desk editor at university@dailytarheel.com.