And Then There Were Four

The search for a provost nears its completion.

Earlier this semester, The Sandspur ran a story reporting on the continuing search for Rollins’ new provost. Laurie Joyner, one of the four candidates, has been acting as interim provost for this academic year while the search committee looks for a permanent replacement. At the time of the previous story, the search committee, along with the Witt/Kieffer agency, was still going through the application letters in preparation for video conferences with the administration on campus.

Now the final four candidates have been chosen and invited to the campus for interviews with the students, faculty, staff and President Duncan’s selection committee.

The candidates sent their credentials to Witt/Kieffer, and four were ultimately chosen for consideration: Caral Bresnaham, the current provost and executive vice president at the College of New Jersey; Christopher Ames, provost and dean of Washington College; Jonathan Green, dean of the college and vice president of academic affairs for Sweetbriar College; and Laurie Joyner, our interim vice president for academic affairs and provost.

From Feb. 15 to March 3, the candidates will be on campus for two sets of interviews. One interview will be exclusively with the administration while the other will be a discussion open to all students, faculty and staff.

After all of the interviews are done, there will be an open conversation on March 4 wherein everyone can express their opinions, followed by a Web survey. “[The survey] is an opportunity for somebody who has come to the sessions… to share with the community their input on the candidates,” said Matt Hawks, director of human resources.

Once the interviews have been completed, the surveys filled out, and the search committee has convened a last time to review the candidates, the committee will send its recommendations to President Duncan and his committee. “It is our hope that by the following week we can present to President Duncan two to four fully acceptable candidates,” Hawks added.

Duncan and his team will be in charge of making the final decision. The president will then begin negotiations with the chosen candidate. Before he makes his decision, he will have an hour-long session with each candidate, along with all of the other deans and admissions advisors. By the time the students return from spring break, Rollins should be ready to welcome its new provost to campus.