The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point is one step closer to having a new chancellor after six final candidates hailing from around the nation were announced Friday.
Neil Heywood, chair of the Chancellor Search and Screen Committee formed by the UW System and chair of the geology department at UW-Stevens Point, said usually candidates are narrowed down to five finalists, but the high quality of the candidates who applied for chancellor allowed for six.
The finalists all have some background in higher education and will visit the campus in the coming weeks to meet faculty, staff and students.
Heywood said the visits will provide one final key element missing from making the final choice of who will be chancellor: how the finalists will conduct themselves in the UW-Stevens Point community.
“I’m grateful I do not have to make the final choice,” Heywood said in regard to the quality of the candidates.
UW System spokesperson David Giroux said once the visits are completed, a Board of Regents special committee will interview the finalists.
Giroux said the process for choosing a chancellor on all campuses is almost identical.
The committee will then make the final recommendation to the Board of Regents for approval.
He said when the final candidate officially starts his or her role as chancellor, one major task he or she will have to undertake is to revitalize the UW-Stevens Point Foundation, which faced some difficulty as a result of economic hardship.
As figurehead and main overseer of the campus, the chancellor will play a large part in outreach with donors, Heywood said.
The current UW-Stevens Point Interim Chancellor Mark Nook is among the finalists and has been serving as chancellor since Linda Hunt Bunnell resigned in May 2009.
Other finalists include Anantha Babbili, provost of academic affairs at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and Beverly Karplus Hartline, dean of graduate students at the University of the District of Columbia.
Heywood said each candidate was chosen based on his or her merits and will bring something different to the table.
The final decision will be made by summer, Heywood said, and the chancellor will be appointed by the next academic year if everything in the search process goes according to plan.
