By Mark Hansel
NKyTribune managing editor
The search for the next president of Gateway Community and Technical College is underway with an aggressive timeline designed to have the new leader selected by the end of May.
Jay Box, president of the Kentucky Community & Technical College System, identified the timeline and the search criteria at a Special Called Meeting of the Gateway Board of Directors Wednesday evening.
The meeting took place at Gateway’s Center for Technology, Innovation and Enterprise on Madison Avenue in Covington.
“Usually search processes take up to six months (but) we’ve compressed this one to five months,” Box said. “The main reason for this is that faculty go off contract on May 31 and we always want faculty involved in the process. If we get delayed anywhere in this process, it could be as much as a two-month delay, because we would want to wait until August, when the faculty is back.”
KCTCS Chancellor Emeritus Keith Bird has been serving as interim president at Gateway since Oct. 1, after the abrupt retirement of former president Ed Hughes in September.
KCTCS has used the expedited timeline in other searches, so it is possible, but strict adherence to the timeline is critical.
The process will begin with the establishment of a Presidential Profile Development Committee (PPDC), which has two responsibilities. It must recommend a profile of the skills and characteristics the next Gateway CTC president should possess.
The committee must then review all of the applications that come in and narrow that group down to three or four candidates, which will be presented to Box.
“My responsibility is to bring it forward to (the Board of directors),” Box said.
The members that make up the committee will be determined by Box and Gateway Board Chair Jeffrey Groob.
Groob will chair the committee and will recommend five members. Box will select another five members from Gateway faculty and staff.
Groob will choose from a pool that could include members of the Gateway Foundation, key employers in the region and other community members, including school superintendents or leaders of local nonprofits or other agencies.
“We traditionally do not have a lot of representatives from the board of directors on the committee and there is a very big reason for that,” Box said. “You want someone else to go through the minutiae part of this, because you’ll have 50 to 70 applications. Chair Groob may consider putting another board member on this committee, or he may not…but you will be engaged in this process all along.”
The committee will be established and its members will be notified by mid-January.
Other key dates in the selection process, which are tentative at this point, but will need to be adhered to in order to meet the aggressive timeline:
Feb. 1 – Separate meetings of the PPDC and the current Gateway leadership team, with Mississippi-based Gold Hill Associates, the consultant chosen to assist with the selection process. Following the meetings, a survey will be developed and sent to all members of the Gateway faculty and staff, who are asked to prioritize the characteristics identified for the next president. The survey will be used to help develop a position statement that will identify the characteristics and qualifications for the position.
March 7 to April 7 – The position will be advertised in a wide range of state and national publications.
April 8 – This is the deadline for applications, but there will be some wiggle room to allow for correspondences that might be delayed in the mail.
April 11 – The review process begins. The materials are first reviewed by the KCTCS to eliminate applications that do not meet the minimum requirements for the position.
April 13 – Portfolios for qualified applications are sent to the PPDC for review and evaluation.
April 29 – Conference call that includes Box, Gold Hill Associates and the PPDC, which will result in the field being narrowed to between eight and 12 applicants. Those applicants will be asked to submit a video interview with responses to three questions. One will be generic, and the other two will be specific to Gateway to help determine the candidates that have the desired leadership style and skills for the position.
May 16 – The group will meet to review the videos and evaluate the remaining applicants. Two current college presidents will be include in this meeting to assist with the evaluation. The field will be narrowed to three finalists, who will be notified and invited for onsite interviews.
May 17 – The names of the finalists will become public.
May 26 and 27 – Onsite interviews will be conducted. The finalists will spend part of the first day touring all of the facilities and campuses. There will be a forum that includes faculty and staff on each campus. There will also be an open forum that will include members of the community and will be open to the public.
The Board will go into executive session to conduct separate interviews with each candidate. When interviews are completed, the Board will remain in executive session and begin the discussions designed to lead to the recommendation of a new president. Box will establish the terms of employment, including salary, with each candidate before they leave the campus.
If a candidate is chosen, the board will make a recommendation to Box, who will notify the candidate to confirm he or she is still interested in the position and announce the next president of Gateway.
If the search is successful, the new president will assume the position July 1 and Bird will remain on campus for about a month to facilitate a smooth transition.
Contact Mark Hansel at mark.hansel@nkytrib.com