NSU faculty wants more say in president choice

NORFOLK

The hunt for the next president of Norfolk State University has barely begun, but already the process has upset some faculty members. They want more say in who will be their next boss.

Board of Visitors Rector Ed Hamm is completing appointments of the leader and two committees that will handle the process. One faculty member will sit on the "input" group, which will recommend the traits and characteristics needed for the next president of the 75-year-old institution.

Faculty members, though, want to be represented on the second panel, the screening group that will review applicants and make recommendations to the board, which chooses the president.

Archie Earl Sr., faculty senate president, will be the faculty representative on the input panel.

"We respect their authority, and we'd like to work with the board to find the best president for Norfolk State University," Earl said. "We feel we're the people who will have to work with the new president... and we can make it a better process, a more open process."

The board hopes to name a successor to Carolyn Meyers by January. Meyers resigned in June after months of criticism about her leadership. Kim Luckes, a former executive vice president at Saint Augustine's College in Raleigh, N.C., is acting president.

Hamm said the board wants a confidential search, one with no public interviews. He said the campus community will not be aware of the candidates until the new president is announced.

It's the method used when he was rector of Old Dominion University's board from 1998 to 2000. He was chairman of the search committee that selected Roseann Runte, ODU's president from 2001 to 2008.

"This is the approach that has been recommended by the experts and has been used before with good results," Hamm said.

Hamm said the board wants to attract the best prospects, including sitting presidents, and some may not apply if they know their names could be made public. They might become concerned if they knew that constituents, such as faculty, were on the panel, he said.

Paul Champagne, faculty senate chairman at ODU, said he's always known presidential searches at ODU to be private.

Two years ago, the faculty executive committee was asked to meet with two finalists off campus and to sign confidentiality agreements. Champagne said the faculty members honored the agreement, yet the names of the finalists were eventually leaked One candidate withdrew her name, and the search was suspended.

Earl said some NSU faculty members were offended by the suggestion that they can't keep a secret. He said a private search goes against tradition at Norfolk State.

In 2005, before Meyers was chosen, faculty members worked on the search committee and two finalists appeared on campus for interviews and meetings. Faculty were included in the 1996 search that led to the selection of Marie V. McDemmond. That was a confidential search, but names of the finalists were leaked before McDemmond's name was announced.

Hamm said alumni, former presidents, board rectors and community members, such as ministers, are on the search groups, but he would not disclose their names.

"Almost everyone in town who is affiliated with Norfolk State has asked to be on the committee," he said.

Norfolk State's search groups will meet within the next 30 days, and job postings for the presidency will soon begin running in national journals and publications, Hamm said.

Search consultant James L. Fisher, who is considered one of the leading authorities on higher educational leadership, is working with NSU.

The input committee will schedule town hall meetings within the next 60 days to hear suggestions from the public on what they want in NSU's next leader.

Denise Watson Batts, (757) 446-2504, denise.batts@pilotonline.com