UM Curators finalize Presidential search document
The University of Missouri Curators and the Presidential Search Committee have finalized the document the search firm will use to find candidates.
In Wednesday morning’s meeting, the group tweaked language and details in the document. Some examples include adding “international students” to the document when talking about groups of inclusion.
The group also discussed the financial information to add in the document. They wanted to make sure to include budget numbers and how much the institution gets from the state and be as accurate as possible.
Our ABC 17 News crews spoke with Curator Pamela Henrickson after the meeting. Henrickson said they wanted to make sure the most accurate information is available to the candidates.
“In an organization the size of this one, the source of the funds that run the place are very important to the person at the top of the organization,” Henrickson said.
Another part of the document described how each campus operates under their own “individual strategic plans”. One curator mentioned this was important for the campuses to know the new president won’t create new plans for each campus.
The document also said the new president should “improve student success”, “promote the mission” of the University, and empower a “team of leaders”.
The curators expect the final document to be publicized on the presidential search committee’s website by Thursday.
The search committee wanted to make sure the firm would be able to get the point across that the University of Missouri System is a thriving institution. One member said, “we did not have a disaster, we had a challenge.” She said the university “worked through it”. She wanted to ensure candidates knew the university, specifically the Columbia campus, was not a “war zone”.
The firm also asked the committee to tell them of any ongoing activities around the system aimed at bettering the racial tensions at the campuses so they could pass along the information to any candidates.
In return, the firm will provide bi-weekly summary reports of the work they’ve been doing.
The committee will meet again on June 16th in Columbia to review candidates. The committee expects to have a new University of Missouri System president by the end of the year.
