University Of Florida Continues Search For President

GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA — The following email was sent today to University of Florida students, faculty and staff regarding the UF presidential search:

To: University of Florida Family and Friends
Re: President Search Update

I write to you today with great optimism for the successful outcome of our search for University of Florida’s next president.

After five months of search committee and subcommittee meetings and outreach to the greater UF community and to leaders across the nation, I am pleased to update you on where we stand in the process of recruiting highly qualified individuals for this important role.

Our search firm consultant Jan Greenwood and I recently shared with the search committee the insights gained through our outreach to leaders in academic research institutions and organizations across the nation as we have encouraged interest in the UF presidency. Foremost in our minds were the search criteria developed to ensure UF’s presidential candidates are highly credentialed and accomplished leaders with distinguished academic careers, as well as leadership, fundraising, financial and management abilities. We seek a president with a passion and vision for the full breadth of UF — our land grant mission and the arts, liberal arts, humanities, sciences, technology, and professions broadly defined.

The high level of interest in the position of UF president among leaders with distinguished academic careers nationally leads us to believe we will have assembled a qualified pool of applicants in the very near future.

Let me share with you what you can expect when the selection process starts, because it will proceed quickly. As in the past, we have respected the individual right of highly qualified individuals to make the personal decision of whether and when to apply. Once an individual makes an application, we include the applicant’s name on a list posted on the presidential search website and we provide ample access for our key constituencies during the Gainesville and on-campus interviews of our finalists. We are planning to begin the selection process on Monday, October 13, 2014, and expect it to end on Wednesday, October 15^th:

• Day 1: The search committee reviews every application and decides whom to interview in Gainesville, based on their qualifications under the search criteria.
• Day 2: The search committee interviews those applicants invited to Gainesville; determines those who are most highly qualified under the search criteria; and refers them to the Board of Trustees for interviews.
• Part Day 2/Day 3: Each finalist appears at a campus/community assembly to meet students, staff and other interested parties, as well as a separate faculty assembly. These assemblies will be open on campus and covered by closed-circuit TV at various locales around campus and around the state of Florida.  (These assemblies will be accessible to the campus community and Florida stakeholders but will not be accessible to the home campuses of the finalists outside of Florida.)
• Day 3: The Board of Trustees interviews each finalist and elects the next UF president. The president-elect is then ratified by the Board of Governors at its next meeting.

The questions to be asked at the campus/community and faculty assemblies will be derived from the questions developed during the 2012 searches as well as recent public input. Also, the faculty senate chair is working with the faculty councils and deans to arrive at the questions for the faculty assemblies. Of the more than 100 stakeholder comments , the emerging themes of highest interest concerned the breadth of UF and a balance in various aspects of its mission; the contributions of UF’s land grant mission; UF’s research, scholarship and impact locally, in the state, nationally and internationally; and a commitment to broadly defined diversity, free expression and multi-cultural experience. Information on the assemblies will be posted on the search website.

I will provide frequent updates, and you can also follow along at www.presidentsearch.ufl.edu. Public notices of the search committee meetings, interviews and assemblies will be posted on the website.

Thank you for your dedication to University of Florida. The next president will lead our great university to a promising future indeed. We have worked hard to encourage a pool that includes highly qualified leaders, with distinguished academic credentials, as well as the leadership, management and fundraising abilities to achieve our university’s goals. I am optimistic and excited as we anticipate the next phases of the process.

Sincerely,
Steven M. Scott
Chairman
UF President Search Committee
UF Board of Trustees

 

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