I want to salute the campus community for its input in the selection of Jack Midgley as the 12th president of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

The 10-month presidential search process led the college to a man who will do an excellent job building on the strong legacy of Sam Hulbert.  We knew following the 28-year tenure of Dr. Hulbert would no easy feat for any successor.  We entered the search giving strong consideration as to the traits we felt the next leader of Rose-Hulman should bring to campus, which I outlined in my previous column.  The overwhelming consensus that came out of the process was that Dr. Midgley would be the best person to take our college to the next level.

The process that brought Rose-Hulman and Dr. Midgley to that conclusion started last May with the appointment of a search committee that represented all campus constituencies – students, faculty, alumni, staff and trustees.  The 16-member committee was set up with half of its members being trustees and the other half representing the on-campus community and alumni.  Members of the committee were:  Robert Compton, Board of Trustees;  Phillip Cornwell, professor of mechanical engineering and faculty representative;  Guille Cox, Jr., Board of Trustees;  Thomas Dinkel, Alumni Representative to the Board of Trustees;  Richard Ditteon, professor of physics and optical engineering and faculty representative;  Brian Dyer, director of alumni affairs and special events and staff representative;  James Eifert, president of Rose-Hulman Ventures;  William Fenoglio, treasurer, Board of Trustees;  Pete Gustafson, vice president for student affairs and dean of students;  Jeanne Liffick, administrative assistant for academic affairs and secretary to the search committee;  Alane Meis, secretary, Board of Trustees;  Natalie Morand, student representative;  Donald Scott, vice chairman, Board of Trustees;  Bryan Taylor, director of publications and staff representative;  Michael Thomas, Board of Trustees;  Art Western, vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty;  and Clyde Willian, chairman, Board of Trustees.

I want to extend my personal thanks to each of those persons who collectively devoted hundreds of hours reviewing resumes, making reference checks, meeting with prospective candidates and attending meetings.  I especially want to thank Art Western and Jeanne Liffick who handled most of the logistics for our meetings and candidate interviews.

One of the first tasks tackled by this group was the selection of Academic Search, a consultant service that specializes in chief executive officer and chief academic officer search needs of American higher education.  The consultant serving Rose-Hulman was Tobie van der Vorm who guided our committee through the search.

The position was advertised in the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) magazine Prism and in the Chronicle of Higher Education.  In addition to those outlets, letters were sent to engineering deans and presidents throughout the country seeking nominations and applicants for the Rose-Hulman presidency.  Of course, many personal contacts were made in the engineering education community to make people aware of our search.

That process resulted in 60 applicants.  We narrowed the field to 16 candidates in October and eventually to four finalists who came to campus for a thorough two-and-a-half interview process that put the candidates in front of all campus constituencies.

Each finalist’s visit included meetings with individual vice presidents, academic department heads, student representatives,  the faculty affairs committee,  a committee of staff representatives, and Board of Trustees representatives. 

In addition to the aforementioned constituent meetings, an open forum was held in the Hatfield Hall theater.  The entire campus community was invited to these forums.  Each candidate made opening presentations to the group at large and then fielded questions from members of the campus community.  Estimates put the attendance at each open forum from 300 to 350 people.

I was very proud of the exchange that took place at each forum.  Our faculty, staff and students represented themselves and the college well.  All questions were focused and they revealed different aspects of each candidate.

After the open forums, faculty, staff and students could provide their comments via an, confidential online survey about each candidate.  They also could contact their respective constituent representative on the search committee.

Two open meetings – one conducted by the faculty representatives and the other by the staff representatives – took place after the on-campus candidate interviews.  Each of those sessions provided an overview of the process and allowed for further exchange of ideas concerning each candidate.

On February 4, the search committee met to make a recommendation.  Each constituent representative reported to the committee the views of each of his or her constituents.  The final unanimous recommendation that went to the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees was that Dr. John J. Midgley be selected by the Board of Trustees as the 12^th president of Rose-Hulman.

The process that reached that conclusion was thorough, open and informed.  It flourished because of the input that was received from the campus community.  All voices were heard and they were seriously considered in into the decision-making process.  There are not many colleges that encouraged as much input as we did in our search.  I am proud to be part of such a community and again express my thanks to you all.