Brite Board to review candidate
By Nyshicka Jordan
Staff Reporter

A recommendation for a Brite Divinity School presidential candidate will be made to Brite’s Board of Trustees at the May 1 meeting, school officials said Thursday.

Larry Smith, chairman of the presidential search committee, said the candidate was selected by the presidential search committee and approved by Brite’s Executive Committee.

The search committee consists of five Brite trustees, five Brite faculty members, a former student and a current student.

Committee members said they were unable to talk openly about the search process and that inquires should be directed to Smith.

But search committee member James Duke said the committee was enthusiastic about its top candidate.

However, Smith said, the recommendation does not mean this candidate will be approved by the Board.

“As to the likelihood of the candidate being accepted by the Board of Trustees, I would not want to speculate on this,” Smith said. “As chair of the search committee, I would hope that the candidate would be accepted, but the Board has the final decision on this.”

Smith said it would be premature to release the name or information about the candidate before May 1 because of the need to protect the candidate and because the decision is not yet official.

Ann Sewell, vice president of finance for Brite, said the candidate was chosen from a diverse pool of 65 names.

The presidency is the highest office at Brite. When the new candidate is announced, he or she will replace former president Leo Perdue, who stepped down last semester to return to full-time teaching with Brite.

Smith said the original date for presenting the candidate was May 5, but that the date was moved up because the search had gone well enough to warrant doing so.

n.d.jordan@tcu.edu