TO: The PLU Community
FROM: Susan Caulkins and Michelle Ceynar, Co-Chairs of the PLU Presidential Search Committee
Dear Campus Constituencies:
Our last update included a brief description of our search consultant Paul Chou with Korn Ferry. Mr. Chou was on campus very briefly during the February Board of Regents meeting for an introduction to the Regents. The search for the next president of Pacific Lutheran University will be proceeding to our next phase under his guidance where we will be meeting with members of the campus community to discuss the university and presidential needs.
As a first step in this process, the Search Committee is scheduling several forums for March 19-21 for faculty, staff and student groups. Emails will be sent separately to groups with the time and location. These forums will be facilitated by members of the Search Committee and will be an opportunity for community members to share thoughts about what information our potential candidates will need to know about PLU and what qualities the best candidates for our new president will possess.
After Spring Break, our search consultant will come to campus for one-on-one meetings with campus leaders and small groups of constituents. To ensure broad representation, the Search Committee will be consulting with campus leadership to identify those who will be invited to represent varying groups across campus at these meetings. The search firm will also be creating a dedicated email account through which members of the community will be able to share thoughts directly with the consultant and search committee or to nominate individuals who might be excellent candidates for the position.
Along with the material we have from various campus documents, the information we gather from the campus community through our forums, search consultant meetings and other input received by the Committee will result in a written profile describing institutional priorities that you help identify. Although we understand that everyone is busy, we hope that you will take time to participate in these meetings and share your insights.
The Search Committee will then generate the candidate pool through nominations received from the campus community, from national education and foundation officials, from other colleges and universities, from alumni and friends of PLU, from advertising outreach and from the work of our consultants. Much of this work will happen over the summer months and into fall. We hope to begin narrowing the candidate pool through the fall, moving toward a time in early spring semester 2019 when we will introduce finalists to the campus community.
Please feel free to direct comments and concerns to the Presidential Search Committee through the co-chairs:
Susan Caulkins, scaulkins@dpearson.com
Michelle Ceynar, ceynarml@plu.edu