Bill Kibler, Vice President for Student Affairs at Mississippi State University, has been named one of three finalists in the Northwest Florida State College presidential search.
The NWFSC Board of Trustees is scheduled to meet March 22 to select which finalist they will offer the position.
Kibler said he is both honored and humbled by the opportunity to be one of the three finalists for the position.
“The opportunity to be even considered is a humbling experience,” he said. “[The on-campus visit is] an opportunity for me to continue to evaluate that opportunity and them to evaluate me.”
NWFSC’s main campus is in Niceville, Fla., near Destin on the Florida Panhandle.
A Florida native, Kibler said the proximity of NWFSC was part of what attracted him to the opening.
“I grew up in Northwest Florida, so this is practically home for me where the college is,” he said.
He said another attraction was the considerable growth the college system in Florida has been seeing in recent years. Kibler noted the Florida College System is seeing tremendous increase and has begun to transition many community colleges into state colleges offering four-year degrees.
“Although my background is not in community colleges, my background has been primarily with universities, but part of my interest in at least considering this is that they have an exciting future,” he said.
NWFSC, which has a student population of about 15,000, was one of the first three of these colleges to begin offering four-year bachelor’s degrees.
According to a release from NWFSC, the college’s 14-member search advisory committee chose Kibler and the other finalists from a group of over 70 candidates.
Each of the candidates will participate in an on-campus interview, including Kibler, whose interview is scheduled for March 19.
Wesley Wilkerson, NWFSC’s Trustee Board chairman and chair of the search committee, said in the release he looks forward to the next step in the selection process.
“We are pleased to have such a distinguished panel of finalists and look forward to the on-campus visits of each candidate,” he said.
Kibler has served as the head of Student Affairs at MSU for six years. Former President Charles Lee appointed him vice president in March 2004. Before coming to MSU, Kibler served as interim vice president for Student Affairs at Texas A&M.
At Texas A&M University, Kibler earned his doctorate in educational admistration. Before that, he earned an educational specialist degree and a master’s in counselor education, as well as a bachelor’s degree in economics at the University of Florida. Kibler also earned an associate’s degree from Pensacola Junior College.
Like many colleges and universities, NWFSC contracted the professional administrative search company Academic Search, Inc. based out of Washington, D.C., to locate applicants like Kibler.
John Pickelman, senior consultant at Academic Search, has assisted the college in the process and said the search began about six months ago.
“There was a national advertising recruiting campaign,” he said. “We received about 78 applications; the committee reviewed those, selected 10 for reference checking, then selected for seven for interviews . [then] the committee decided on three finalists.”
He said his role in the process has been primarily been to coordinate information and assist the NWFSC search committee.
“This process is one that the firm we’ve been using for almost 40 years,” he said. “Our firm has 32 search consultants that work with colleges and universities all across the country.”
Kibler said if offered, he would accept the job, only if it were the right opportunity.
“I dearly love Mississippi State University,” he said. “Because of our love and loyalty for MSU and for Starkville, it would take the perfect opportunity for us to leave here.”
If chosen, Kibler said the changeover would not be immediate, as NWFSC expects to have the newly selected President in office by June.
MSU President Mark Keenum, meanwhile, would select the interim Vice President of Student Affairs.