The University of Nebraska Board of Regents on Thursday named a 22-member advisory committee and scheduled listening sessions next week for public feedback in its search for a new university president.
Current Nebraska President Ted Carter is leaving at the end of the year to take over at Ohio State University. The Regents have hired Academic Search as its consultant in the search.
The advisory committee included all 8 elected regents, the 4 student regents, the Faculty Senate Presidents at the 4 campuses and 6 individuals not directly affiliated with NU including retired banker and former state senator John Stinner of Gering
Others include NU Foundation chair-elected Jane Miller of Omaha, Northeast Community College President Leah Barrett of Norfolk, and Omaha Chamber president and CEO Heath Mellor – who is also a former state senator and a former VP at UNO,
Regents chairman Tim Clare is also chair of the search advisory committee. He says the listening sessions are open to the public and will be Tues in Omaha at UNMC and UNO, Wed at Nebraska-Kearney, and Thursday at UNL. Online input will also be taken.
Clare says all meetings of the committee are subject to the Open Meetings Act if 5 or more of the elected regents are present.
Clare says there’s no “defined timeline” for picking the new president with the goal being “to cast as wide a net as possible and consider a range of potential candidates.”
A single “priority candidate” will be selected for interviews and campus visits with a 30-day public vetting periodic before that person is presented to the regents for a vote.
Academic Search, the outside consultant for the search, has estimated it would be at least 17 weeks between its signing of a contract on Oct 5th and the selection of the priority candidate. A final vote could then come in late Feb or early March.