A search committee for the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith met for the first time Wednesday to discuss its plan to find a new chancellor.
Margaret Tanner, associate provost for academic affairs at the Fort Smith campus and search committee chair, said the members discussed the process and the expected timeline.
"We hope to be able to advertise the job before we break for the holidays," Tanner said. "I will be working with some members of the search committee to finalize the documents."
The search firm of Greenwood/Asher & Associates, Inc. -- which is based in Miramar Beach, Fla. -- is assisting in an effort to find the next leader at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, UA System President Donald Bobbitt has said.
The search committee and search firm will help Bobbitt, who will ultimately make a recommendation to the University of Arkansas board of trustees. The trustees historically approve the UA System president's choice.
The executive search firm will be paid about $84,000, with the money for their services coming from The University of Arkansas - Fort Smith Foundation Inc., UA System spokesman Nate Hinkel has said. The search firm will also be paid an additional fee for indirect expenses, Hinkel said.
The executive search firm is the same one the UA System used to recruit Joe Steinmetz as chancellor for the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and Andrew Rogerson as chancellor for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
Tanner said the advisory panel she leads hasn't finalized anything yet, but it wants a chancellor who is highly qualified and will be able to communicate and cultivate relationships while moving the university forward academically.
"We need someone who can help articulate our needs," Tanner said.
The university is seeking a replacement for Paul Beran, who left on Aug. 31 to take a job as executive director and chief executive officer of the South Dakota Higher Education Board of Regents. Beran arrived in Fort Smith in 2006 from Northwestern Oklahoma State University in the town of Alva, 14 miles south of the Kansas border. He served as president of the 2,200-student university in Oklahoma from 2001-2006.
Bobbitt appointed Edward Serna, chief of staff and vice chancellor for strategic initiatives at the Fort Smith campus, as interim chancellor.
Tanner said the search will be open to all applicants.
"I hope we have a diverse applicant pool," Tanner said. "We aren't focused on a certain region or person and I am sure the search firm will help us with this as well."
The school, which originally opened in 1928 with an enrollment of 34 students, has 6,569 students this semester, according to the latest figures available from the Arkansas Department of Higher Education.
State Desk on 12/17/2018