The OSU Board of Trustees will meet Friday, May 20, in a public session to decide which presidential search finalists will be invited to the Corvallis campus the following week.
The chosen finalists will participate in public forums with the university community and in-person interviews with the board during the week of May 23.
On May 7 and 9, the board conducted executive session interviews with semi-finalist candidates, held in keeping with the search process, the board’s role and Oregon’s public meeting law, which allows a public body to meet in executive session to consider the employment of a public officer.
“We arrive at this place in the search with a strong and diverse field of excellent, highly qualified and varied candidates to consider for OSU’s next president,” board chair Kirk Schueler wrote in an email to the OSU community Tuesday afternoon.
He credited the search’s progress so far to the work of the presidential search advisory committee and the executive search firm Isaacson, Miller.
He also gave thanks to early input from OSU community members and stakeholders who participated in a web survey and 15 listening sessions, where they told board members what qualities and qualifications the university’s next president should possess, and what opportunities and challenges the university will face in the future.
The board has hired an independent contractor to conduct comprehensive background checks of candidates to be advanced in the next phase of the search. Schueler said this due diligence was recommended after a review of the university’s last presidential search process and was discussed at a board meeting on Oct. 8, 2021.
Due diligence efforts regarding candidates also are being conducted by Isaacson, Miller and the university’s Office of Human Resources. Initial due diligence findings will be considered by the board in an executive session May 20 before announcing finalist candidates in a public meeting
The public forums with finalists will be held in-person, streamed live and recorded with a link for later viewing available on the presidential search website. The search website also will have a link for OSU community members and stakeholders to provide feedback on candidates.
Trustees anticipate they will make a final decision on the presidential selection by June 7, with the new president taking office in July
“This is an exciting time for Oregon State University, the OSU community and all who the university serves,” Schueler said
The board remains committed to completing a collaborative and transparent search with the engagement of university community members and stakeholders, Schueler wrote. They will continue to provide updates in emails and on the Board of Trustees website, and Trustee Julie Manning, chair of the presidential search advisory committee, will update the OSU Faculty Senate this Thursday, May 12.
