Search committee begins work

The search for IU's next president now falls into the hands of a 17-member committee appointed at Friday's board of trustees' meeting. The committee is charged with whittling the field of candidates down to a list of five to seven nominees and presenting them to the trustees, who will appoint the next president by July 1, 2003.\nThe 17-member committee is comprised of administrative officials and faculty from four of IU's eight campuses, trustees Sue Talbot and Stephen Ferguson and one student.\nThree Indianapolis business executives have also been tapped to serve on the committee, a sign of the increasing importance IU places in its partnerships with the private sector. In 1993 when a committee was created that ultimately helped choose President Myles Brand, only one member had ties to the business community. \nThe date of the first meeting has not been set.\nTrustee and committee member Sue Talbot said the committee will hold conversations with all of IU's interest groups to create a picture of the type of president the University needs. \n"We have a very short time line," Talbot said. "The process will include talking to all the constituencies, within and outside the university."\nThe committee will be aided in that process by an executive search firm. Nominations will be accepted from both the firm and university interests. \nIU Student Association treasurer junior Blair Greenberg is the student representative.\n"What I'd like to see is a president who when making any decision, big or small, has the students' best interests in mind," Greenberg said.\nCommittee member John McCluskey, professor of African American studies, has previously served on committees to hire an IU press director and a dean for the college of arts and sciences. \nHe said he wants to find a president that "leads by example, thinks long as well as thinks short and relishes the job."\n"(The presidency) is not something you bear as a sacrifice," McCluskey said. "It's something you want to do. As other presidents have said, it's a 24/7-plus job."\nHe said the next president should have "a track record showing commitment to equity as well as diversity issues at every level"