The search committee tasked with finding Virginia Tech’s next president will conduct interviews for the position sometime in the next 15 days, committee chair Nancy Dye announced Friday.
When and where those interviews will occur and who might participate in them was not disclosed during the committee’s minute-long virtual meeting Friday.
Though most meetings where public university board members are in attendance must be open to the public, state law allows broad exemptions when it comes to conducting interviews for the university’s top position.
The only requirement for these closed meetings is for the board to publicly announce them and then hold them within 15 days.
At least 23 people, including Dye and other members of the presidential search committee, attended Friday’s meeting based on the participants shown on the Zoom screen during the livestream.
Others at the meeting included Rector Jim Miller; board members Bill Holtzman, J. Pearson and Jane Cady Rathbone; Amber Hagan, president of Virginia Tech’s staff senate; Marlena McGlothinlin Lester, the administrative and professional faculty representative; Katie Drinkwater Gregg, the graduate and professional student representative; and board secretary Kim O’Rouke.
A university spokesperson did not immediately confirm the full list of attendees on Friday.
Though nearly two dozen people were named to the search committee in May by former Rector John Rocovich, Dye, the board’s vice rector, announced in July the creation of a smaller subcommittee tasked with interviewing candidates to replace long-time President Tim Sands, who in April announced his plans to step down. He’s agreed to stay in his role until his successor is found.
“Things move very quickly in this world,” Dye said during the July search committee meeting. “We must be nimble as a committee, as candidates we identify may very well be involved in other searches or are being pursued by other universities.”
The six-member subcommittee consists of Dye; Miller; board members Starlette Johnson, Christopher Ramos and Robby Moser; and Faculty Senate President Justin Lemkul.
“When the time comes, the entire search committee will have the opportunity to meet and interact with the finalists in person. They will then provide input to the Board of Visitors, who are all participating as members of the committee, on which candidate(s) they recommend,” Dye said in a statement issued through the university on Aug. 20.
In that statement, Dye also emphasized “confidentiality” as a “critical component of the process.”
“Potential candidates serve in prominent leadership positions at universities, research institutions, government agencies, or other organizations and will only participate in the search with the expectation that their identities remain private throughout the search. National search firms and governing boards routinely rely on this approach to ensure access to the strongest possible pool of candidates, a practice highlighted in similar presidential searches conducted at leading institutions across the country,” she said.
The board has hired firm Isaacson Miller to help lead the search. The search firm has held more than three dozen listening sessions across the state and in July, Greg Esposito of Isaacson Miller provided a high-level summary of the feedback the firm had garnered from those listening sessions and a public survey so far.
Recurring themes from these conversations, Esposito said at the time, was that the Virginia Tech community as a whole is most interested in a potential candidate’s commitment to a “student-centered land grant identify for Virginia Tech;” the leadership characteristics of the next president, including commitment to shared governance and supporting campus morale; and commitments to research, health sciences, regional partnerships, town-gown relationships, relationships with the state, and the reputation and branding of the university.
As of July, the candidate pool included about 40 people, according to Dye. She noted other high-profile presidential searches at the time, including at Clemson University, the University of Michigan and the University of Florida.
Earlier this month, the University of Michigan appointed its new president while Clemson named Kevin Guskiewicz as its new president in June but he backed out of the offer in July.
The University of Florida also named its next president, Stuart Bell, in July.
