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Teams launch search effort

Seek outside ?rm to help recruit

Erskine Bowles plans to step down as UNC president once a successor is found.
Erskine Bowles plans to step down as UNC president once a successor is found.

Picking the next UNC-system president is not an easy job, even for the group of more than 40 people charged with the task.

Before they can even think about candidates, members of the committees must get input from various sources, develop a sense of the system’s direction and draft a job description for the person who will replace outgoing President Erskine Bowles.

Outside help will be crucial in this search. Last week, the search committee began soliciting proposals from a list of 21 different executive search consultants — private firms that identify candidates for top administrative positions.

Search leaders hope that bringing on a consultant — despite the significant cost — will help them find the best candidate in the next eight or nine months.

“The search consultant will be very, very helpful,” said Hannah Gage, chairwoman of the Board of Governors and the search committee. “They can tell you how to screen and how you reach out to candidates. Last time they actually helped us out with the leadership statement.”

UNC-system president search committees


Selection and Screening Committee:
The committee sent 21 consultants a letter asking them to submit a proposal for why they should be included in the search. Consultants are asked to submit proposals by April 1. The committee will narrow the field and hear proposals from about four finalists on April 9.

Leadership Statement Committee:
The committee is charged with writing a leadership statement — a document what will lay out what the state is looking for in the next president and serve as an advertisement for the job.
Over the next three weeks, seven subcommittees will solicit input from various constituencies. Based on this feedback, the committee will draft a leadership statement by the group’s April 30 meeting.

Search Committee:
The committee will hold its first meeting Thursday. Much of its work will not begin until the field of candidates has narrowed down by the other committees. In the meantime, the committee is working to establish compensation guidelines.
 

Gage served on the committee that hired outgoing President Erskine Bowles, who announced in February that he was stepping down from the job. Bowles said he hopes to serve until December but will stay until a new president is selected.

Whoever is selected as Bowles’ replacement will be given wide authority to oversee the 17 campuses of the University of North Carolina. He or she will work with lawmakers to set the system’s budget and communicate with chancellors to set direction at the individual campuses.

Search leaders have set a preliminary budget of $100,000, but Gage said that number is likely to change once they hear estimates from consultants, whose compensation will make up a significant portion of the budget.

In 2006, when the committee selected Bowles, they paid the consultant $75,000, but consultant and travel prices have risen since then.

With UNC-CH administrative searches running about $150,000, and the search that picked Chancellor Holden Thorp two years ago costing more than $210,000, the committee seems poised to surpass its estimate.

Members of the selection and screening committee, tasked with hiring the consultant, said they were interested in firms with both academic and non-academic arms to attract diverse candidates.

That could rule out niche consultants such as R. William Funk & Associates, the higher eduction search consultant who helped UNC-CH select Thorp two years ago.

“Funk might not be good at coming up with non-educators,” said Paul Fulton, a Board of Governors and selection committee member who previously served on the UNC-CH Board of Trustees. “It might be worth exploring non-academic firms.”

The 17-campus system has had four presidents since it unified in 1971. Two of these, Bill Friday and Molly Broad, came from the ranks of academic administration. Bowles and C.D. Spangler, the other two presidents, came to the job with backgrounds in both public service and private administration.

The 25-member leadership statement committee is setting up a feedback Web site and asking various constituencies “What experiences, skill sets, and characteristics are essential to the success of the next president of the 17-campus University of North Carolina?” to draft a statement that will be available to potential candidates.

Contact the State and National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.

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