PINE BLUFF — Two of the four candidates for the chancellor position at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff will visit Arkansas this week for interviews.
Kim Luckes, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Norfolk State University in Virginia, will visit Tuesday and Wednesday, and Robert Mock Jr., vice president for student affairs at the University of Kentucky, will visit Thursday and Friday.
Two candidates - Laurence Alexander, associate dean of the graduate school at the University of Florida, and Everette Freeman, president of Albany State University in Georgia - will be in Pine Bluff on Jan. 29 and 30 and Feb. 5 and 6, respectively.
The search for a new UAPB leader has been going on since May, when Chancellor Lawrence Davis Jr. retired after 21 years.
Calvin Johnson, a former UAPB dean who once was in the state Legislature, has served as interim chancellor since Davis’ departure.
Search firm Greenwood, Asher and Associates has helped find applicants under a $70,000 contract with UAPB, which was paid from the university’s operating budget, UA System spokesman Ben Beaumont said. That contract also allows for up to $30,000 in expenses, such as travel for candidates and search consultants, he said.
Dr. Robert McGehee, dean of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and chairman of the UAPB chancellor-search committee, said the search started with about 70 people who expressed interest. Thirty five submitted full application packets.
Ten candidates from the 35 were invited to a weekend retreat in December for interviews, and from that group, four were chosen for interviews, said McGehee, a UAPB graduate.
UA System President Donald Bobbitt will select one of the candidates and present the choice to the UA board of trustees for approval.
UAPB, with a student enrollment of 2,800, is the only historically black public university in Arkansas.
Mike Akin, chairman of the UA board of trustees, said he wants to make sure that the new chancellor “understands that they are part of the UA system. We want them to excel and help them make that university the best it can possibly be. We feel like the next chancellor has a lot of opportunities ahead....”
Akin also called UAPB a “critical piece of Pine Bluff and south Arkansas,” adding that “we are ready for a new chancellor.”
The university has had some problems recently.
Davis’ departure from the chancellor’s office last year followed an internal audit that sparked an ongoing investigation by the Arkansas State Police and led Davis to fire four employees.
Working for two years, UA auditors discovered $700,000 in payroll and purchasing transactions that violated university spending controls at UPPB’s Harrold Complex dormitory.
In May, Arkansas State Police turned the investigation over to Prosecuting Attorney Kyle Hunter of Pine Bluff.
No criminal charges were filed.
And in 2010, the state Board of Nursing placed the UAPB nursing program on probation, citing three consecutive years of fewer than 75 percent of graduates passing a licensing exam.
UAPB also has the highest remediation rate of the state’s public four-year institutions at 85.8 percent, according to statistics from the Arkansas Department of Higher Education.
UAPB’s graduation rate was 23.0 percent, the second-lowest among the state’s public four-year schools, according to a Higher Education Department report covering the academic years 2005-11.
McGehee said he and other members of the search committee are hoping to find someone who will help move UAPB forward.
“With this hire, we are looking to the future for UAPB,” McGehee said. “You can’t dwell in the past. Our job is to look for and find highly qualified candidates who recognize the amazing potential that is available at UAPB.”
McGehee said UAPB “has tremendous potential, and you really want someone in the chancellor’s seat who can recognize that and help realize it.”
Arkansas, Pages 13 on 01/20/2013