The Presidential Candidate Search Committee plans to interview four executive search firms in mid March and approved at its Feb. 25 meeting an advertisement that will appear in a March issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education.

The committee also approved a new Web site highlighting the presidential search--www.sc.edu/presidentialsearch--that includes links to information about the University and a description of the requirements for Carolina's presidency. The quarter-page ad that will appear in the Chronicle of Higher Education is a summary description of the University and of the desired qualities of the University's next president.

The four search firms that will be interviewed by the committee in mid March are R. William Funk & Associates; Hydrick and Struggles; Korn Ferry International; and Isaacson, Miller. Korn Ferry was the executive search firm that assisted the University in the previous presidential search that brought Andrew A. Sorensen to Carolina.

Bob Best, Columbia campus Faculty Senate chair and a member of the committee, sent an e-mail solicitation to all faculty, and he and the other three faculty members on the search committee--Val Lumans, USC Aiken; Marlene Wilson, School of Medicine; and Dianne Johnson, Department of English--have been collecting input.

"One of the general concerns that was a recurring theme is that the presidential candidates we recommend should have an appreciation for all academic disciplines," Best said. "Some thought candidates should have some experience at the level of dean or higher. Others said, no, that wasn't necessary, but they should have a nuanced understanding of higher education.

"They also said the next president should be fully committed to major initiatives, such as Innovista, that already have been launched."

Lumans said several faculty he has communicated with have suggested that candidate finalists should have an understanding of the balance between the University system and the local autonomy of each campus.

The committee discussed the idea of academic qualifications for presidential candidates but agreed to take a broad approach.

"We want to get as many qualified applicants as possible with diverse backgrounds," said Toney Lister, a Board of Trustees member from Spartanburg. "We already have received several official nominations, and several names are floating around."

"I think the idea is that we will cast the widest net we can, and the job of this committee will be to consider the best interests of the whole University in its consideration of individual applicants," Best said.

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