WSU presidential search committee planning to have first meeting Friday
Wichita State’s presidential search committee will have its first meeting this Friday, Kansas Board of Regents President Blake Flanders said at a KBOR meeting Wednesday.
The committee is chaired by Wichita Attorney and WSU Foundation Board of Directors Chair Dan Peare. KBOR appointed 22 members to the committee— three of whom are WSU students.
Committee members include the presidents from each of the three senates representing those who work at WSU: Aleks Sternfeld-Dunn, Faculty Senate, Trish Gandu, Unclassified Professionals Senate, and Randy Sessions, University Support Staff Senate.
The three student representatives are Student Body President Rija Khan, WSU Graduate Student Council Representative Corinthian Kelly and Engineering Technology Management senior Sierra Bonn.
KBOR moved for a closed search at their Nov. 18 meeting, which means that presidential candidates’ names will not be released to the public and finalists will not meet with anyone outside of the search committee.
Flanders expressed his hope during that meeting that the Regents would honor the resolutions by the Faculty Senate and the Student Government Association asking for fair representation in the search process. SGA opened applications for students who were interested in serving on the committee after the Regents requested the association to recommend students representatives.
The last search committee had 19 members, two of whom were students. The current committee is composed of eight faculty and staff members — three more than the five members who served last year.
The Regents’ charge to the committee states that the committee’s role is to “assist and advise” the Regents in selecting the next president of the university. The committee will present an unranked list of three candidates whom they believe would serve the university well. KBOR will make the final decision.
Search committee members full list:
Dan Peare, chair
Allen Schmidt, regent
Blake Flanders, board president and CEO
STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES
Rija Khan, WSU student body president
Corinthian Kelly, WSU graduate student council representative
Sierra Bonn, engineering technology management senior
FACULTY/STAFF/ADMINISTRATION
Aleksander Sternfeld-Dunn, Faculty Senate president
Melissa Walker, professor
Mehmet Bayram Yildirim, professor
Shirley Lefever, interim executive vice president and provost
Trish Gandu, Unclassified Professional Senate president
Randy Sessions, university support staff senate president
Sheree Utash, WSU Tech president
John Tomblin, executive director of the NIAR
WSU FOUNDATION AND ALUMNI
Elizabeth King, WSU Foundation CEO
Jeff Turner, WSU alumnus, retired president and CEO of Spirit Aerosystems
Junetta Everett, WSU alumni, VP of professional relations for Delta Dental in Kansas
WICHITA COMMUNITY MEMBERS
Charmes Chandler, IV, CEO, INTRUST bank
Steven Packebush, founder and partner, Elevar Partners
Yolanda Camarena, board member of the Kansas Hispanic Education and Development Foundation
John Rolfe, chief business officer, Kansas Leadership Center
Paul Allen, chief executive of Allen, Gibbs & Houlik, L.C.
Lindsay Smith is the former editor-in-chief and newsletter editor for The Sunflower. Smith was a journalism major at Wichita State with a minor in creative...
Fake President Bardo • Dec 20, 2020 at 1:39 pm
I’ll be there!
As always,
Fake President Bardo