From: President’s Office <president.office@fredonia.edu>
Date: Mon, Mar 16, 2020 at 7:09 PM
Dear Members of the SUNY Fredonia Community,
We are pleased to provide the following update from the Presidential Search Committee. With the support of the Chancellor’s Office, we have made the decision to proceed with the presidential search during this challenging time. We do so in part because of our excitement over the strength of the candidate pool, and out of the recognition that our campus needs strong, permanent leadership moving forward.
Here is a quick summary of where we are and how we got here. Since November of last year, hundreds of individuals were contacted to seek their advice and suggestions for this search. You may recall we reported in December that between applications from the job posting, nominations from the community and recruiting by our search firm Storbeck Search, a strong pool of candidates was beginning to build. Over the last two months, members of the committee reviewed candidate materials and were able to narrow the pool of approximately 85 confirmed applicants to a small number of highly qualified individuals for serious consideration.
Last week, the committee met to conduct the final review of applications and select a candidate group for initial, remote video interviews. We also used the rubric established by the committee to evaluate each candidate in a consistent, fair, and balanced way. Throughout this process, the committee honored our commitment to identifying the most diverse possible pool of candidates, and the candidates identified for interviews were selected from this pool.
First round interviews with the candidates will take place over the next few weeks with a small group of qualified candidates. This pool was highly diverse across many dimensions, including professional background; gender, race, and other personal identifiers; and scholarly areas of interest, among others. Interview topics will include issues of broad importance to SUNY Fredonia, ranging from candidate experience with student interaction; priorities and concerns of students, faculty and staff; issues of diversity, equity and inclusion; questions about leadership values; budget management; fund raising; and experience with infrastructure oversight.
After completing this first round of interviews, the committee will engage in a round of in-depth referencing and further meetings with a small group of candidates. These meetings will include confidential meetings with constituent groups from campus. Due to the current environment, we are still working on the details of what those meetings might look like, but we have begun working with leaders in those stakeholder groups. All those participating in meetings with the final candidates will be asked to sign non-disclosure/confidentiality forms, as did all members of the search committee.
The committee is mindful that the final selection of Fredonia’s next president is up to the Chancellor and the Board of Trustees of the SUNY System. We anticipate that the committee will be able to recommend a small group for further consideration by the Chancellor no later than the end of April.
We continue to appreciate your support and understanding of this process.
Sincerely,
Frank Pagano
Presidential Search Committee Chair