The search committee for the next chancellor has begun meeting to determine a list of candidates for the university, according to the CU spokesman.
The search committee held its first meeting Friday, after having received all nominations and applications for the position last Wednesday.
“This is a relatively quick search,” said Ken McConnellogue, associate vice president in the department of University Relations.
On Feb. 25, former CU Chancellor G.P. “Bud” Peterson was officially appointed to the position as the next president of the Georgia Institute of Technology.
The committee is working toward choosing the best candidate for the position of chancellor by May 1. McConnellogue said the search process had to be quick in order to have the input of the entire campus before the semester comes to an end.
As of this week, McConnellogue said he was not able to name any of the nominees or applicants for the position, but he was able to provide information concerning the 12 members of the search committee.
In an interview with the CU Independent, Interim Chancellor Phil DiStefano confirmed that he had been nominated and submitted an application for the position.
The committee is chaired by Leonard Dinegar, vice president of Administration and Chief of Staff, and includes individuals such as physics professor Uriel Nauenberg, director of the ATLAS building John Bennett, chair of the Spanish and Portuguese Department Ricardo Landeira, chair elect of the Alumni Association Jimmy Calano, doctoral candidate in physics Andrew Poppe and Ryan Biehle, a senior political science major and Tri-executive for UCSU.
Biehle explained his and other committee members’ responsibilities in their roles as part of the search for the new chancellor.
“It’s the responsibility of every committee member to look out for the interests of the university as a whole,” Biehle said.
For the next few weeks the committee will be reviewing nominations and applications for the position and will narrow down the number of prospective individuals to between three and five candidates. These candidates will then be presented to President Bruce Benson, who will make the final decision.
For now, the search for chancellor will be an internal one, but if the search for the most outstanding candidate must continue outside of CU, it will be carried out on a national scale.
Some students weighed in with their thoughts on the process of finding the new chancellor.
Kate McLachlan, a 20-year-old sophomore linguistics major, expressed concern over the presence of alumni on the committee.
“The school always has to be careful if it’s on the hands of the alumni because…so often, schools make choices based on who can pay the most and who has the most endowment in the school, and that’s not always in the best interest of the students,” McLachlan said.
Both McLachlan and Kathrine Warren, a 22-year-old senior news editorial major, also commented on the presence of CU students on the committee.
“I think it’s good that there are at least two students on the board,” McLachlan said.
Warren, however, says she would have liked to have seen more student representatives.
“Considering that we have 20 some-odd thousand students, perhaps a few more students on the board would be more appropriate than one undergrad and one grad student,” Warren said.
Those on the committee are chosen as representatives in accordance with the policies of regent law.
According to McConnellogue, it is regent law that determines which individuals the committee must be comprised of, as well as the processes the committee must go through in their search for candidates to present to Benson. McConnellogue added that this law only requires one student to sit on the board, and through his ability to do so, Benson increased the number of students to one graduate and one undergraduate student.
“He just wanted to have further representation,” McConnellogue said of Benson’s decision to expand the number of members on the committee.
As of now, DiStefano, provost and executive vice chancellor for Academic Affairs for the last eight years, is serving as interim chancellor until the new chancellor is named in addition to his current roles in the administration.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Sara Morrey at Sara.morrey@colorado.edu.
