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Search committee ready to close role

Gogue hopes to contact a provost candidate soon after he gets the committee's short list

by Dusti Rhodes
The Daily Cougar

After more than six months of work, the search and screening committee for a UH provost and UH System academic vice chancellor has located eight candidates for the job, had two drop out of consideration and added two at the last minute. But Ted Estess, head of the committee, said the group will meet Tuesday to bring its role in the search to a close.

Estess said the committee will choose no less than three candidates from which UH President and UH System Chancellor Jay Gogue can make his final decision. There are six candidates: Sharon Stephens Brehm of Indiana University 

Bloomington; Richard Edwards of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Cristina González of the University of California, Davis; Elizabeth Langland of UC Davis; Charles Louis of Georgia State University; and Luanna Meyer of Massey University in New Zealand.

The committee was scheduled to select candidates for Gogue's consideration after Edwards, González, Louis and Meyer had visited the campus, but Estess said it decided to widen the search in order to ensure the best decision would be made. Brehm and Langland were added as a result.

Gogue said he would like to be able to immediately contact a candidate after he receives the committee's recommendation. Although Gogue will make the final selection, he said the search committee has served a vital role in the process.

"A lot of my work is done by the search and selection committee," Gogue said, noting how much time the committee members spent with the candidates.

"These are people that get on the phone and talk to (the candidates') references and talk to people where they are ... they spend 24 hours with them in interviews," Gogue said.

Because of that interaction, Gogue said he will listen very carefully to what the committee members have to say about each provost hopeful.

Estess gave credit to the University community as well, saying feedback and comments from UH faculty, staff and students greatly aided the search committee's work.

"The choice that will be made will reflect the participation of a wide number of persons in the UH community," Estess said.

Gogue said he was impressed with the candidates the committee brought to the Univeristy and said he believes any of them would do well in the provost position.

Estess also said he is satisfied with the candidates and their enthusiasm has proven that UH is in a good position to attract exceptional academic leaders.

The provost position has been open since Edward P. Sheridan stepped down Sept. 1. Jerald Strickland, an optometry professor, has been acting as interim provost during the search.
 

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