Work Begins in Search for President

The nationwide search for a successor to Malcolm Gillis, who announced in December that he would step down June 30, 2004, after 11 years as president of Rice University, has officially begun with the selection of the search committee. The committee, which will make recommendations on candidates to the Rice Board of Trustees, is made up of representatives from all segments of the Rice community.

“We have a committee composed of people from many parts of the Rice family,” says Jim Crownover ’65, the trustee who is chairing the committee. He stressed the importance of input from all parts of the university community in identifying and recruiting the best possible candidates for the position. “Committee members will work early on to get input from faculty, students, staff, and alumni about things to be preserved at Rice, challenges and opportunities before the university, and what that means for the future leadership of Rice.”

The committee includes three other trustees in addition to Crownover—Teveia Barnes ’75, Steve Miller, and Bernard Pieper ’53—four faculty members chosen by the Rice faculty—Jim Pomerantz, professor of psychology and director of the Neurosciences Program; Robert Curl, University Professor and the Kenneth S. Pitzer-Schlumberger Professor of Natural Sciences and professor of chemistry; Robin Forman, professor of mathematics; and Robert Patten, the Lynette S. Autrey Professor in Humanities—one staff member, nominated by the Staff Advisory Committee—Mary Cronin, associate vice president for human resources—one undergraduate student, nominated by the Student Association—Andy Weber, a Sid Richardson College junior—one graduate student, nominated by the Graduate Student Association—Miles Scotcher, the current Graduate Student Association president—and two alumni, nominated by the Association of Rice Alumni—Carl Isgren ’61 and Karen Ostrum George ’77, who also is an alumni member of the board of trustees. William Barnett ’55, chair of the board of trustees, will serve as an ex officio member of the search committee. Melissa Kean, postdoctoral research fellow in the George R. Brown School of Engineering, will staff the committee.

Crownover and Barnett increased faculty representation on the committee to four, from the three in recent presidential searches. “The faculty are so important in this process,” Crownover says. “They’re vital in identifying particularly good candidates and have insight into candidates’ academic backgrounds and accomplishments.”

Among the search committee's early agenda items are deciding whether to employ a search firm, seeking “best practices” from information already gathered from other institutions that recently have done presidential searches, and beginning the process of identifying criteria for choosing the next president. Crownover said that the committee would seek input from all sectors of the Rice community about Rice’s future and what that implies for the kind of candidates that Rice will consider.

Crownover says the committee hopes to deliver its recommendations to the board by the end of December.

Keep up-to-date on the presidential search at http://ricesearch.rice.edu.