BY KURT MARTONE, NEWS ASSIGNMENT EDITOR
The search for St. Bonaventure University’s next president is slowly entering its final stages.
The Presidential Search Committee – made up of Board of Trustees members, faculty, staff, alumni, and a student, among others – met Monday to narrow down the pool of applicants given to them by the search firm that the University partnered with, WittKieffer. WittKieffer is a personnel search firm based in Oak Brook, Illinois that specializes in company executives.
Meghan Hall is a senior journalism major, and the president of the Student Government Association – she is also a student representative on the Presidential Search Committee.
“We read over and reviewed all of the applications that we received from every candidate who applied for the search. That was all done independently and then the Search Committee came together earlier this week to speak about our opinions of each applicant and narrow down the pool from there based on what everyone said,” Hall said.
Throughout the selection process, the Committee has made an effort to be faithful to the listening sessions held last May.
“A lot of the things that people said were really similar,” said Hall, “One big thing that bridged across all the different listening sessions was somebody with franciscan values and a love for what the university has to offer.”
Hall also said that students wanted to see transparency and kindness in a new president, as well as someone who would spend time with students and could gain an understanding of what students wanted to see.
“People wanted someone who was compassionate and someone who is a good face for the University; [someone] who is friendly and outgoing and just really embodies who we are as a University,” Hall said.
Another emphasis of importance for the Search Committee was having a diverse pool of candidates to pick from.
“The search firm did a good job of bringing diverse candidates both from different types of Universities and from different walks of life: races, ethnicities, all of that to us. It was something that was really important to a lot of stakeholders,” said Hall.
In a couple weeks, the Search Committee will interview the candidates from the pool that they have already narrowed down.
“It will be a virtual interview. From there, after those interviews are conducted, the Search Committee sits down immediately after the interviews are done,” said Hall. “We will talk about and evaluate who we think might be the best fit to continue moving forward. From the small pool that we already selected we will select an even smaller pool.”
That even smaller pool of candidates is expected to come to campus for in-person interviews.
“Typically in a presidential search that really small pool would be able to come for on campus interviews and tours and all that. I am not really sure if that is possible just because of COVID-19, but I do not see why not,” Hall said.
The Board of Trustees will be told of who the Search Committee recommends during their upcoming meeting in December.
“I am looking forward to interviewing the people that we selected,” said Hall, “I feel confident that the next president of St. Bonaventure University will be a force, both for the University and for the community.”
According to the University’s website, the next president is expected to be announced by the end of this year.
martonkd18@bonaventure.edu
