SUBR Chancellor search narrows to six candidates

The six semi-finalists for the Southern University chancellor search who will be on campus Monday, April 28 to interact with the students, faculty, staff and community are Drs. Ray Belton (Southern University at Shreveport), Wynetta Lee (Jackson State University), Kofi Lomotey (Fisk University), Napoleon Moses (Alcorn State University, Joseph M. Stevenson (Jackson State University) and Mac A. Stewart (The Ohio State University), according to Diane Craig, executive associate to the president.
The search process began with the position announcement and press release on January 14 yielded 35 candidates. Thirty-five was reduced to 16 and now the number has dwindled down to six said Matthew Butler, co-vice chair of the chancellor search committee and vice president of The Shaw Group, Inc.
According to the itinerary, the student involvement portion along with the faculty, staff and community will begin Monday, April 28 with breakfast from 8:30 a.m.- 9:35 a.m. by invitation to constituent group representatives.
From 9:45 a.m.-10:45 a.m., the candidates will be in Higgins Hall, room 114 hosted by The Nelson Mandela School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, College of Arts and Sciences, and John B. Cade Library.
At 10:55 a.m.-11:55 a.m., the candidates will be in Lee Hall, room 132 hosted by College of Sciences, College of Business, School of Architecture and The Honors College.
At noon, the luncheon will be in the Cotillion Ballroom located in the Smith-Brown Memorial Union, invitation only.
At 1 p.m.-2 p.m., the candidates will be in the High Tech Classroom hosted by School of Nursing, College of Engineering, College of Agricultural Family and Consumer Sciences and Military Science.
The decision was made for the promotion of these six to the next phase on Tuesday, April 22 at University Place, the President’s house. Their interviews were held during the week of April 7. Next, the six will be reduced to three, said Butler.
When attempting to decide who would move on, Butler said, “Individually it was a difficult process because in your mind, you are trying to get the candidates who closely reflected things that you wanted to see. Collectively, I think the process worked because you brought 25 different views together and an evaluation process. At the end of that process, it told us who were the top six or seven candidates.”
The committee members completed questionnaires, rating the candidates in 15 areas including the exposure to the accreditation process; one’s role in recruit, retain and graduate rates; how to protect Southern’s interest regarding budgets within the legislature; how to actively engage inactive alumni; one’s philosophy regarding new technology integration; fund-raising experience and experience in fiscal matters; experience in engaging faculty in scholarly pursuits; how to keep effective lines of communication with students open; and how to secure pay raises for faculty and staff. According to Butler, they were rated from one being non-responsive to 10 being most responsive.
Whoever receives the position of chancellor needs to be first-rate, said Albert Samuels, president of the Faculty Senate Elections Committee.
“Particularly in view of recent events such as the grade scandal, Southern University needs someone who can restore our academic reputation.”
Samuels also said, “We need someone who understands and respects the role the faculty should play in the university and has demonstrated a clear commitment to shared governance. We need to move away from a leadership style in which ‘faculty input’ is merely a slogan and not a reality.”
“We need a chancellor who has demonstrated the ability to work with legislators, the governor and outside donors to enable us to get the financial resources our institution needs to fulfill its mission.”
The political science professor ended with, “We need a chancellor who can relate to our students.”
Butler, being a businessman, focused on two main characteristics when considering candidates:
“One of the criteria that I emphasized on was leadership – the ability for that candidate to have a vision for the university, not only strategically, but long term visionary as far as where they see this university being 10 years from now.
“The other thing was their administrative capacity, that is, looking at the challenges that the main campus faces today. What are some of the things that you have been involved with, with similar type situations? What have you done to correct those situations, and why do you think you were successful in doing those things?”
Jamal Taylor, president-elect of the Student Government Association, said, “I think we have six strong applicants. I am impressed by their research and educational backgrounds. They all stand out as strong candidates in their own rights. They all have the qualifications and propensity to guide an institution of tertiary education with a rich heritage such as Southern University.
“I look forward to intense interviews and student involvement of each respective candidate to dictate the final outcome of this very competitive chancellor search.”

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