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SU gets timeline to choose president

The Advocate
January 13, 2010
by Jordan Blum

The Southern University System should have a new president selected by mid-April, the private search consultant told the college system’s president search committee on Tuesday.

The search process has stalled since it began in July. However, a new 90-day search timeline began Monday, said Robert Clayton, executive vice president of the private, Chicago-based search firm DHR International.

“We know when this process started — it started today,” Clayton told the search committee Monday. “And we know when this process will end — it’s going to end in 12 weeks. I guarantee.”

Clayton, who joked that he is not related to Southern Board of Supervisors Chairman Tony Clayton, said the search process will involve him working with the committee to recruit new candidates for the job.

Clayton said the search process will be publicly transparent, but also “discreet” in order to woo potential candidates who do not want their employers to know they are considering another job.

He said he will then present eight to 10 top candidates to the committee. Members will interview some and choose three finalists, he said, and then finally choose Southern’s next president.

Besides applicants from higher education, Clayton, a former Tulane University Law School associate dean, said he expects the search committee to be open-minded about potential candidates from the financial realm, nonprofits and Fortune 500 companies.

Southern needs a president with the right combination of leadership skills, charisma and fundraising ability, he said.

Search committee member Adam Knapp, the Baton Rouge Area Chamber president and CEO, said the goal is to find the best person, not the most parochial insider.

“Their knowledge of Mardi Gras, their knowledge of red beans and rice — I don’t care about,” Knapp said.

Committee co-chairman Murphy Bell Jr., who sits on the Southern Board of Supervisors, said he is pleased to see an aggressive timeline back on track.

“We’re on the same accord of this process being done the right way and not being hijacked,” Bell said.

The Southern University System oversees three academic campuses, a law school and an agricultural center.

The most well-known new applicant is former Southern Chancellor Marvin Yates, who is the Southeastern Louisiana University vice president for student affairs.

Other new applicants include Charles Green, president emeritus of Bermuda College; Adesoji Adelaja, director of the Michigan State University Land Policy Institute; Karl Wright, former president of Florida Memorial University; Lemuel Berry, former provost of Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, Texas; and Robert Jennings, former president of Alabama A&M University.

The most nominated person is Leonard Haynes III, a senior adviser in the U.S. Department of Education’s office of postsecondary education, who has said he is considering applying.

The Southern presidency was vacated at the end of June when former President Ralph Slaughter’s contract ended. Slaughter has litigation pending against Southern.

Kassie Freeman is serving as the interim president.

A contract with search firm Heidrick and Struggles of Chicago fell through late last year, which delayed the search for a few months.

DHR is being paid just more than $75,000 to head the search — $49,900 from Southern and the rest from the private Southern University System Foundation and donors.