The Special Committee on the Nomination of the President met yesterday, beginning the closed session of the search process.
This is the fourth of five parts in the process. At the meeting, the committee began to approve nominations for the presidency, University spokesperson Carol Wood said.
There have been almost 200 nominations for the position, she added, and the committee is now moving on from the research stage, which included discussions with higher education leaders across the country as well as presidents of other colleges and universities.
Currently, "we're not in the stage where we're talking to any candidates," Wood said. "This is all the preliminary, looking at who they believe should make it to move to a list of possible candidates."
John Wynne, the committee's chairman and rector of the University's Board of Visitors, did not comment on specifics of what was discussed during the meeting.
"Everything is confidential from here on out," Wynne said. He noted that if the process does not remain confidential, candidates who have jobs elsewhere may see their employment jeopardized.
Wynne noted that the search process has five steps, and that the committee is advancing to later stages. After establishing the process and gathering information from constituents, the committee completed the third step: putting together a profile.
That job description was posted last week, Wood said, and accompanied an e-mail to the University community in which Wynne gave an update about the search process.
The position description, called "Seeking an Extraordinary Individual to Lead the Institution into its Third Century," is available on the committee's Web site. The committee put the profile together after gathering input from "all the various constituents," Wynne said.
The profile outlines the qualities the committee is looking for in a president, as well as the challenges and opportunities ahead for that individual, Wood said.
"[It's] important because you want to listen to everybody to understand what they think," Wynne said, "and to be sure when you're out there looking for candidates [you are able to] match against what people have told you is important."
Starting with yesterday's meeting, the committee began to gather and to evaluate a specific pool of candidates, Wynne said. He added that there is no deadline for the selection of the next president.
"It's [going to] take until we find somebody who is superb," Wynne said. "Then the Board of Visitors will choose that person and we will at that point announce who that person is."
Wood described the committee members as strong, diverse and engaged, acknowledging the seriousness of their undertaking.
"The group has really come together in, I think, an amazing way," Wood said.
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