Committee formed for chancellor search
A search committee has been established to find a new chancellor by spring 2003. The members will recommend candidates throughout the semester to the Board of Trustees.
By Antoinette Vega
Staff Reporter

A search committee established this summer is seeking a candidate to fill Chancellor Michael Ferrari’s position after he announced his retirement June 4 to move closer to his family in Chicago.

“Our goal as a committee is to find a candidate to fulfill the mission at TCU and to maintain the relationship that Chancellor Ferrari had between students and faculty,” said R. Denny Alexander, the committe’s chairman.

The committee members, chosen by the Board of Trustees, will be searching for an effective leader with strong academic credentials and communication skills, he said. Candidates will be chosen according to a statement of qualifications and criteria established from two committee meetings held over the summer.

The committee will place advertisements in the Chronicle of Higher Education and other publications such as the Wall Street Journal and send out letters to university-related donors and associations to notify them of the search and ask for nominations.

Trustees, faculty and staff are sending names of potential candidates to the committee. Meetings will also be held on campus with groups of students, faculty, staff and the alumni board in the next six to eight weeks to gain input on the kind of leader wanted as the new chancellor.

Provost William Koehler said last week expertise as a fund-raiser is also a top qualification.

“The search committee will represent what the community wants and will only recommend candidates to the Board of Trustees,” Alexander said.

He said there are no prospective candidates and no deadline has been set, but a candidate should be announced by spring 2003 in time for the Board of Trustees’ approval at their meeting in April.

Koehler said they would probably have the list cut down to around 12 candidates before the search shuts down for the semester and by the first of February they will start to hold a series of meetings in remote locations involving pieces of the search committee.

Alexander said, “The Board of Trustees will be the ones making the decisions.”

Chancellor Ferrari said he met with Alexander to offer his thoughts and ideas for the search.

“I plan to help with the process in any way that I can,” Ferrari said. “I will be around if recommendations are needed.”

A professional from the firm Korn Ferry International will also be usedto help identify and screen potential candidates, Alexander said.

Alexander said that Ferrari has done an excellent job and has been very positive throughout the entire search process.