The Winthrop University Presidential Search Advisory Group has started gathering information to begin the search process for Winthrop’s 12th president.
The Presidential Advisory Group helps guide the board of trustees in selecting the next president. While the vetting process and search has not yet started, the advisory group is gathering data to share with the board.
The advisory group is made up of 20 people, five of whom were automatic members. Those five members include the two co-chairs Dr. Gloria Jones (professor emeritus and Student Advocate) and Peter Moroni (Winthrop Foundation Board Chair), the Faculty Representative to the Board Dr. Jennifer Jordan, the Student Representative to the Board Erin Emiroglu (President of Council of Student Leaders) and the Staff Representative to the Board John Kroft.
The other 15 members have been split into five groups of three, consisting of faculty, staff, students, alums and the business community.
“The last time we met, everyone had a say, they had their time to speak. So the alumni were representing their interests and the community members were discussing their interest in being more connected to the university. … I would say that the different groups are being represented very well by the search advisory group members,” Kroft said.
Jones and Moroni’s responsibilities have included gathering information from the five constituents. The three members representing the faculty will work to gather data from faculty about what they see as most important.
The advisory group will then use that data, collected from surveys and town hall meetings, to give members of those groups an opportunity to indicate what characteristics they believe are the most important for the president to have as well as the focus of the president.
Once the group is done gathering data, they will send it forward to the board of trustees who will interview candidates and make the final decision.
“Our group is to survey, have town hall meetings with the individual constituents, in other words, the people, the faculty, the staff, the students, the alums, and the community to see what characteristics and attributes we believe would be most important,” Jones said.
“We will share that information with the board of trustees and they will take that information and fold it into the list of characteristics or at least consider including it in the list of characteristics that they will finally post in the job application.
“That has not occured yet, because they’re gathering those data right now and working on those data.”
The first meeting for the Presidential Search Advisory Group was on Aug. 17. They have since started working on creating the job description and the campus community profile.
“Next month, they hope to have the vacancy notice made public and it’ll close on October 15. So in mid-to-late October, they should have some semi finalists, hopefully 10 of them in December, narrow it down to three finalists … then in February, or March, they hope to have the new president named,” Kroft said.
Jones said the advisory group is searching for a leader with “professional priorities” and “experience with students.”
Sophomore digital information design major Sydni Dingle thinks the next president should be student-oriented and be decisive.
“I think the qualities for our next president should be thoughtfulness and open-mindedness so they are able to make decisions based on what would benefit all students at Winthrop,” Dingle said. “They should value and listen to others’ opinions but still have the decisiveness and courage to make unpopular decisions when necessary.
“I also believe that our next president should be innovative in order to face problems and come up with strategic solutions that will allow Winthrop to grow and be a leader among other universities across the nation.”
