Provost search committee to meet today
Group looks to redefine job description
By Blair Busch
Staff Reporter

The Provost Search Committee will meet at 3 p.m. today in the Wright Board Room to begin looking for a new provost and vice chancellor of academic affairs, Chancellor Victor Boschini said.

Boschini said the committee will look at the job description for the provost and develop an updated version, since it has not been revised in more than 20 years.

Provost and Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs William Koehler will retire at the end of the 2003-04 academic year. Koehler has worked at TCU for 35 years, including a stint of
24 years as an administrator.

Boschini appointed Faculty Senate Chair Nadia Lahutsky to lead the search committee comprised of faculty, staff and students.

“Asking the chair of Faculty Senate to head this up is a way of saying that the academic mission is central and nothing else will drive this,” Lahutsky said. “There is a symbolic value here that symbolizes the role of the faculty in the academic mission, that we have academics here based on the best intellectual traditions and that academics is what stands out front.”

The committee is the result of a collaborative effort between the chancellor and the senate executive committee, Lahutsky said.

“We tried to cover as many colleges and units on campus to get a committee that was widely representative of people from different areas and a particular make up of gender and ethnicity and that sort of thing,” Lahutsky said.

Lahutsky said she would like to find a candidate who has a prior track record as an administrator and who would bring energy and a commitment to TCU.

“I hope that we find someone that sees the kind of good place that TCU is, who recognizes the strengths that TCU has and will want to improve on those strengths,” Lahutsky said.

The committee will do a national search with the help of a consultant with Korn/Ferry International, Lahutsky said.

Boschini said he wants he committee to get to know the consultant and spend the remainder of the meeting working together to come up with a plan to hire the next provost by November.

Both Boschini and Lahutsky said they would like to find a candidate who plans on staying at TCU for a long time but that it would be unusual to find someone who would stay in that position as long as Koehler.

“Continuity is a lot better than searching for someone at that level every two years,” Lahutsky said. “I don’t think that I want somebody who only thinks of TCU as a stepping
stone to a better position somewhere else.”

Student Government Association President Brad Thompson was selected as the student representative to serve on the committee, Boschini said.

“I think that we need to be more aware of where the students are, because the faculty
said that they will show up and I think that you really need to get students excited about this,” Boschini said. “I think that Brad can do that.”

Thompson, a senior radio-TV-film major, said he plans on doing surveys in order to find out the specifics on what students feel works on campus and what needs improvement.

“I think that it is a great opportunity having student representation on how we pick the next provost for the university,” Thompson said. “I think that it is also a great experience and I would like to get a lot of student input on the types of things that students want to see happen with academics at TCU.”

Thompson said that he would like to find a provost who has great leadership and a vision for TCU.

“I would like for the committee to find someone who is really focused on academics, integrity and ethics and how that effects the academic systems of TCU,” Thompson said.