The MSU community will have the opportunity to chat with potential provosts in a few weeks when three or four of the contenders arrive on campus for interviews.
After many people voiced concerns when no search was conducted for a new MSU president last spring, many faculty members said it was important to do a national search for provost.
"For this particular institution, which has history of appointing insiders to senior administrative positions to a degree that's unhealthy and to a degree you don't see at other universities, it would be a disaster if we weren't having a national search for provost," English Associate Professor Sheila Teahan said.
The provost is the chief academic officer on campus and oversees appointments, terminations, salaries and the academic budget, among other things.
In early April, the provost search and rating committee hopes to bring a few applicants to tour campus, meet with faculty, students and other officials, and hold public interviews, said Lynne Goldstein, chairwoman of the committee and an anthropology professor.
"People will be able to ask candidates questions and the candidates will also present some of their ideas for the university," Goldstein said. "It will be an open forum for each candidate."
The committee received about 50 applicants from across the county, and has narrowed the pool to about a dozen people by looking at a set of criteria chosen by the Academic Governance system, Goldstein said.
The qualifications include distinguished scholarly achievement, successful teaching experience in higher education and a commitment to furthering academic freedom and supporting the principles of tenure.
"It's very important that this next provost be a respected scholar in his or her field," Teahan said. "We cannot have someone who's a career administrator. We must have someone who has some understanding of what the rest of faculty do."
The 22-member search committee was created in October to advise MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon on selecting a new provost. The committee is composed of faculty members, deans, specialists and graduate and undergraduate students.
MSU officials said they are committed to the idea of a national search and have enlisted the help of A.T. Kearney Inc., a consulting firm located in Alexandria, Va.
Simon was chosen as president without a national search because she had been with the university for a while and knew all the "ins and outs," but it is important to do a search for provost, MSU Board of Trustees member Dorothy Gonzales said.
"It's important to look at the individuals that are out there and find a person that would make a good fit for MSU," Gonzales said. "We always want to look at a good, qualified person with a good background in a college or university like MSU."
A national search is "critical," but there's still a chance a good candidate could again be found within MSU, said acting Provost John Hudzik.
"I don't know who would want to be provost without being able to survive a national search - it lends credence to the process and the selection," Hudzik said. "It is important to bring in new ideas and perspective to the institution, but that doesn't mean we might not find an internal candidate somewhere down the road that we would be happy with."
If an internal candidate wins the spot, it won't be psychology Professor Norm Abeles or Hudzik. Both were candidates for the position of acting provost last semester and both said they were not in the applicant pool this time.
"I believe we need to have a genuine national search and having an incumbent take the position leads people to ask if this is a real search or not," Hudzik said. "I've been very careful to stay completely out of the search. It's a matter of principle."
Margaret Harding can be reached at hardin42@msu.edu.
