UNO presidential-search committee sets Dec. 9 deadline

Published on under University of New Orleans / UNO Search 2011
Published: Thursday, September 15, 2011, 8:20 PM     Updated: Thursday, September 15, 2011, 8:20 PM

By John Pope, The Times-Picayune

After a year without a full-time leader at the helm, the University of New Orleans should have a new president by Dec. 9, according to a schedule that the selection committee approved Thursday. The selection process also will be unusually transparent, with resumes posted online as they arrive, final interviews being webcast, and search committee meetings available on YouTube.

Chairman Randy Moffett acknowledged that the schedule is aggressive, but he said the committee thinks it is “very, very important to stabilize the leadership at UNO.”

He said the committee wants to have a president in place as soon as possible after the university’s accrediting agency, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, meets early in December to decide whether UNO’s transfer to the University of Louisiana System meets its criteria.

Until this necessary vote, UNO will continue to be accredited as part of the LSU System.

The new president will be a permanent successor to Tim Ryan, who was fired a year ago this week as UNO’s chancellor. Since then, Joe King, who had been UNO’s provost, has been acting chancellor.

UNO had been in the LSU System from its opening in 1958 until this year, when the Legislature transferred it to the UL System. Campus leaders in the UNO system are chancellors. In the UL System, they are presidents.

According to the schedule that the committee approved, applicants’ resumes will be posted online as they arrive, probably in October and November, system spokeswoman Jackie Tisdell said.

The top five or so candidates will be interviewed from Nov. 30 through Dec. 2 at UNO, Tisdell said, and at least two finalists will be presented a week later to the UL System board in Baton Rouge, which will interview them there and pick one.

The process will be webcast, Tisdell said.

The search committee picked R.H. Perry & Associates of Washington, D.C., as the organization to help in the hunt. It was used in the searches for presidents at two other campuses in the UL System: McNeese State University and the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

Information about the search is at www.ulsystem.edu/unosearch. People can send questions and comments to UNOPresidentialsearch@la.gov. All committee meetings will be on YouTube.

John Pope can be reached at jpope@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3317.