The Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees announced the Mississippi State University presidential search is still currently on target, despite calls to reopen the search from the MSU Faculty Senate before the board’s Friday meeting.
The board announced the second-round interviews for presidential candidates have been scheduled for Nov. 5 in Jackson.
IHL Board of Trustees President Amy Whitten said she believes in the integrity of the search despite the allegations and scandal that have emerged during the current process.
“We think [the search process] works,” she said. “The search is still on course and it’s working around the candidates’ [schedules]. We think it will produce sound results.”
The candidates will arrive at the IHL building in Jackson at 1 p.m. for the interviews. Two MSU alumni – USDA Undersecretary Mark Keenum and Wichita State University Provost Gary Miller – have been rumored to be in the running for the top MSU job. The IHL has yet to name the finalists despite another MSU Faculty Senate resolution asking for more transparency during the final stages of the search.
Whitten said the Board of Trustees has taken the Faculty Senate’s resolutions into consideration.
“Every organization should learn from what happens,” she said. “[The Faculty Senate resolutions are] not the first time people have suggested they want the search process changed. We’ll take their input into looking at the process in the future.”
Hart Bailey, MSU Faculty Senate Vice President, said the resolutions were given to the Board of Trustees in keeping with the Board’s request for input during the late-April listening sessions.
“All [the Faculty Senate] can do is express our opinions,” he said. “Then [the Board of Trustees] has to make its decision based on all of the information it has. When [the Board Search Committee] was here for the listening days, the members said they wanted our input.”
Bailey said the Faculty Senate has responded to the growing problems of the search process in a way that represents their constituency group’s views.
MSU Student Association President Braxton Coombs said he believes the Board of Trustees is listening to the Faculty Senate’s input on the search process.
“The IHL Board will take requests under consideration,” he said, “however, the main goal that the board should have in mind at this time is that Mississippi State University gets the right person for the job.”
The Board of Trustees also unanimously named former University of Southern Mississippi President Aubrey Lucas as the interim IHL commissioner. Lucas’ tenure as commissioner began shortly after the Friday announcement.
Whitten said the Board of Trustees could possibly begin discussion to find a permanent replacement for former IHL commissioner Tom Meredith in November.
“It will take [Lucas] a little time to hit the ground running here,” she said. “[He will] assume his duties over the next weeks and probably be with us through the legislative session.”
Rep. Steve Holland, D-Lee, said the IHL made an outstanding decision when they named Lucas as interim commissioner.
“There are no ifs, ands or buts about it – Aubrey Lucas is as straight as they come,” he said. “He can lead us through these stormy waters as the presidential searches calm and until we get a new commissioner.”
Despite her position as IHL Board of Trustees President, Whitten said she has no current plans to apply for the commissioner’s job.
“The constitution prohibits any board member from seeking the position,” she said. “I’ve spent nine years trying to learn how to be a board member, and I hope to spend the next three years fulfilling my position.”