A search committee, formed to find a replacement for Chancellor Robert Coombe after he officially steps down from his position at the end of this school year, will meet for the second time this week, when it will finalize the Chancellor position description and requirements.

Douglas Scrivner, who is the Chair-elect of the DU Board of Trustees, is also chair of the search committee. He says the next steps the committee plans to take include advertising the position, soliciting DU community input about the position, narrowing down the candidates to finalists, bringing those finalists to campus and then choosing the new Chancellor, who Scrivner says the Board of Trustees plans to have in place in June.

According to Scrivner, the 13-member search committee was chosen by a small group using input of the DU Faculty Senate and under parameters approved by the Board of Trustees. While diversity was stressed as an important part of selection for the committee, Scrivner says selection was based on more complex factors as well.

“We were looking for people who understand the university well, understand the issues that we face and will be able to do the kind of evaluation and assessment to make a recommendation in the best interest of the university,” he said.

Scrivner says the position will be advertised, but nominations for the position will be accepted along with applications.

“It’s the kind of search where we will go out and actively recruit,” he said.

According to Scrivner, this means the committee will take recommendations, but will also seek out applications from people who may be strong candidates but who may otherwise not be actively looking for a position. For this reason, he said the candidates involved in the process will remain anonymous until the finalists have been selected.

“[Candidates] may have a position somewhere where they may be very happy and they may not be thinking about a change, but … we will see if we can interest them in some of the opportunities at DU,” said Scrivner. “We will not be able to attract the kind of people we want to attract to this opportunity if they can’t express an interest, they can’t have some preliminary conversation and we can’t do some preliminary evaluation without their name being public.”

While this recruiting is going on, the committee will also seek out recommendations and input from DU students, faculty and alumni.

“We’re going to spend the month of February going out and listening to everybody in the DU community who wants to share their thoughts about what the needs are and about what the profile of a new chancellor should be,” said Scrivner.

This will be accomplished through an open email box for suggestions, on-campus town hall meetings and telephone conference calls for people who are unable to come to campus, according to Scrivner.

Once input has been collected and the field has been narrowed, the finalists will become public and brought to campus to interact directly with members of the DU community. Scrivner says the committee hopes to bring them to campus in late April or early May in order to avoid the scheduling conflicts that would likely be caused by final exams.

“At that point, everybody in the DU community will have the opportunity to listen to them, see them in a number of different settings and share their input about those finalists,” said Scrivner.

More input will be solicited from the DU community at that point, according to Scrivner, and then the final decision will be made by the Board of Trustees.

“The Board will make the final selection,” said Scrivner. “That is really the quintessential responsibility of the board is to choose a chancellor.”

To help the Board accomplish that responsibility, DU has decided to hire Alberto Pimentel from Storbeck/Pimentel, a consultant with experience in higher education searches, to assist in the selection process. Scrivner says the consultants will be especially helpful in reference and background checking, as well as in reaching out to a large network to find candidates.

“We thought it was important to have a consultant who will be able to help us cast a very broad net—look in places we might not otherwise know,” said Scrivner. “They have an extraordinary network that will be an enormous help to us.”

The consultants will not, however, be making the decision about finalist selection; this task will be completely up to the selected search committee.

“[The consultants] provide extraordinary leverage to the committee, but at the end of the day, they understand and we understand that the search committee will make the final decisions, not the search consultant,” said Scrivner.

In its meeting this week, Scrivner says the committee plans to finalize the Chancellor position description, while identifying key priorities and attributes the next chancellor should have. According to Scrivner, these may include leadership characteristics, a shared vision and passion for DU and an understanding of the higher education environment.

“We’re looking for someone who has the kind of leadership abilities…to be able to build strong consensus across campus and across the DU community about the kinds of things that we need to do to continue on the extraordinary trajectory that Chancellor Coombe has helped create,” said Scrivner.

One of the things Scrivner said the committee is emphasizing is the importance of keeping all possibilities open when looking for potential candidates.

“One thing that we’ve shared to the search committee is they need to keep very much an open mind and not come in with preconceived ideas as to what the profile of the next chancellor is going to be,” said Scrivner. “We need to cast a very wide net and look in all kinds of places—maybe in surprising places—for someone who can capture as best as possible all the things we’ll be looking for.”

Scrivner says that regardless of who is chosen to fill the position, he believes the transition to the new chancellor will be a smooth one.

“We want to make sure that the new chancellor comes in with a lot of momentum and that he or she can hit the ground running and continue to build off of the very strong position that we have in addressing all the issues the future is going to bring at us,” said Scrivner.

He further said that Coombe has committed to staying in his position into July to consult the new chancellor if necessary.

However, although Coombe could stay at DU as a professor or researcher since he was given tenure before becoming chancellor, Scrivner does not expect Coombe to keep any responsibilities on campus.

“I think [Coombe] is looking to make a clean break, but be available if necessary to help make that transition,” said Scrivner. “I think he wants to take a little bit of time off … but I’m also confident that the Chancellor, in his retirement, will be active on a large number of issues that are of significance, but probably not at DU.”