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On schedule. And on target, with a solid pool of experienced, quality candidates looking to become the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh’s next Chancellor.

That’s how Barbara Rau, UW Oshkosh College of Business professor in Management and Human Resources and chair of UW Oshkosh’s Chancellor Search-and-Screen committee, describes the search process involving a 21-member panel of faculty, staff, students and community members. The group is seeking the institution’s first new chancellor in 14 years.

“The committee has been great,” she said. “We’ve been meeting every week for two hours, approximately, and just about every week everybody shows up. There are always some conflicts that occur. They are working very hard.”

More on the UW Oshkosh Chancellor search…

 

Richard Wells will officially retire on Aug. 31 after 14 years of service as UW Oshkosh’s 11th chancellor. His retirement announcement in January set in motion a detailed planning, search and transition process to find a successor, one done in coordination with UW System administration and President Ray Cross, who officially charged the search-and-screen committee in March.

Rau said the committee is beginning to “sift through candidates right now, and this process will be going on for the next two weeks. Then, we will be doing some interviews of candidates – pre-interviews. The goal is to have five candidates on campus the first two to three weeks of September and the decision, hopefully, by September 29 or thereabouts.”

The five finalists look to be developed out of a semi-finalist pool of 10 to 12 candidates, Rau told campus in a mid-July search-process update. UW Oshkosh’s and UW System’s search timeline ultimate anticipates the next chancellor will take office on Jan. 1, 2015 or at a negotiated time thereafter.

The search committee has been split into subcommittees to work on the different pieces of the search’s institutional profile and to address and develop content for the different stages of the selection process – “developing interview forms, the interview process, the scales that will be used to evaluate,” Rau said.

Rau said the committee has been steadfast in its commitment to protect candidates’ confidentiality and anonymity in this phase of the process. The committee’s search consultants have begun most of the initial vetting,” she said describing the candidate pool amassed thus far as “good candidates who have some good experience as administrators.”

Candidates who reach the finalist phase of the search will be made public.

“There are adequate numbers,” Rau said. “There’s diversity in the pool. There is high-level experience. I think we’re feeling pretty good about what we’ve got to work with, and, hopefully, when we get to September, you’ll have some good candidates to look at.”

Learn more:

UW Oshkosh Chancellor Search site