Alumni working to be part of presidential search

With IU alumni filling seven of 13 positions on the presidential search committee, Ken Beckley, president and CEO of the IU Alumni Association, has every reason to be excited and said he is pleased in how the process has gone thus far.\n"We are very pleased with the alumni representation on the committee," Beckley said. "They are all very intelligent, very capable people."\nIU alumna and trustee Sue Talbot is chairing the committee that will find IU President Adam Herbert's successor, and most of the alumni serving on the committee are also representing various groups at IU, including faculty, donors and community leaders.\n"We have very good representation on the panel," Beckley said. \nAlumni are getting involved in the search process outside of the search committee, too. The trustees have asked the IUAA to put together groups of alumni who will meet with one or more trustees to discuss what they feel the new president's qualifications should be. Beckley said the IUAA is in the process of putting some of these groups together.\nThe chancellors of each regional IU campus across the state will be asked to put together focus groups with alumni to collect input on the search.\n"Certainly I expect that alumni from each of the regional areas will be included in those groups," Beckley said.\nIn addition, the IUAA is in the process of sending e-mail messages to each of its alumni chapter presidents around the globe and to other constituent and affiliate groups informing them of the opportunity to give input and directing them where to send their comments. The IUAA also asked them to let all of their members know that they, too, are welcome to send their input.\nBeckley said the trustees have been extremely open to hearing the comments and concerns of alumni and are making a good impression by being open-minded.\n"The trustees are quite willing to hear from any alumnus of the University who can express themselves through an e-mail," he said.\nBoth Beckley and Talbot know the value of alumni involvement in the search process. \n"It's important for the University to hear from the alumni because the University would have great difficulty making any progress without the support of alumni," Beckley said. "That includes both financial and volunteer support."\nTalbot, one of three trustees on the committee, said her e-mail inbox has been full of suggestions from students, faculty and alumni describing their desires for the new president. She said the trustees highly value this type of input, and she said she hopes to see this kind of contribution continue throughout the search process.\n"These are people who really care about IU and have valuable suggestions," Talbot said.\nAs for what qualities alumni are looking for in a president, Beckley said many alumni have voiced similar opinions.\n"The alumni would like to see a charismatic leader, a person with vision, an individual who can make decisions in a timely manner and an individual who wants very much to be in the public eye as much as possible promoting the virtues of the University," Beckley said.\nBeckley said that when it comes to filling any major University position, there is always a desire from alumni that one of their own be selected. But it doesn't always happen that the best person available for the job at the time is an alumnus of the University, he said. \n"Most alumni would like to see a fellow alumnus be chosen as president, but more importantly they want the right person for the job," he said. \nPresident Herbert, who announced in January he would retire when his contract runs out in July 2008, said he will step down early if a replacement is found.