President interviews start Wednesday in Chicago

While the University moves closer to choosing President Adam Herbert's successor, the IU Presidential Search Committee has chosen to interview both American and international candidates, said Sue Talbot, an IU trustee and chair of the Presidential Search Committee.\nThe 13-member committee will hold closed-door interviews for three days in Chicago beginning 6 p.m. Jan. 10, according to an IU news release.\nCommenting on why the meeting will be held in Chicago rather than Bloomington, Talbot said when the University brings candidates in from abroad, transportation to a big city is often easier.\n"Not only are we choosing the candidates, we are selling IU to these people," Talbot said. "We want to show these potential candidates how courteous we actually are."\nTalbot said finding the outstanding candidates was not particularly challenging.\n"Between the two committees, it wasn't as difficult as you might imagine when we had a very diverse pool of many, many names to narrow the candidates down," Talbot said. "It becomes quite clear, quite quickly, who the potential candidates are."\nDespite the diversity, there were definite commonalities among all the candidates the search committee chose to interview, Talbot said. \n"All of these people have had experience with research institutions," she said. "This is not an easy job or for the faint of heart. This candidate will be someone who is a strong leader in a multi-campus environment and who can continue to work toward IU's goals."\nThis is the first round of interviews in what will be at least a two-round process, Talbot said. And even though she was pleased with the potential candidates, saying they all were "strong," she said that a new candidate could emerge whom they had never before considered.\n"This is an open-ended search. There is no application deadline," the trustee said.\nRoughly an equal number of men and women will be interviewed next week, Talbot said, but she added that the University would never have selected candidates based on numbers or sex.\nThe Presidential Search Committee was formed last spring following Herbert's announcement that he will step down when his contract expires in July 2008. The committee includes several trustees, University administrators from several campuses and faculty members.\nTalbot said the search committees' hope is to have a new president selected sometime in the summer. Should that happen, Herbert has said he will step down early so the University's new leader can take office.