Presidential Search Framework

Presidential Search Framework

Framework for Presidential Search
Linfield University
Kirby Dyess and Marv Henberg
January 26, 2024

General framework:

• The search process will provide opportunities for people outside the search committee to be engaged in the process of selecting the next president for Linfield University.
• The search committee will recommend up to three final candidates to the Executive Committee of the Linfield University Board of Trustees for campus visits, so they might meet with interested students, faculty, staff, community leaders, alumni and board members.
• The Search Committee will consist of no more than 15 official or primary members. This helps with confidentiality and expediency in our search, and leads to better-focused interviews with semi-finalist candidates.
• The chair of the board will serve as an ex-officio member. The committee will include six members of the board (including Dyess and Henberg); Dyess and Henberg will recommend members with good diversity of time on the board, backgrounds, campus connections and special expertise. Board leadership will provide input and approval.
• The committee will include three faculty members, one coming from each school or college. Each member will be selected by Dyess and Henberg from three nominations made by the faculty senate in consultation with the deans and provost.
• The committee will include three members from staff, with one being the secretary/administrative contact for the committee. The Linfield University leadership team, with consultation from the staff council, will nominate up to three individuals for each staff position.
• ASLU and ASLU-P will work together to provide a recommendation of three sophomores or juniors, including at least one student-athlete and one student from the Portland campus. A graduate student may be considered, if the student has enough time left to participate in the search based on the timeline below. Dyess and Henberg will select one from the list of students to join the search committee.
• The co-chairs reserve the right to solicit a member of the Linfield University Alumni Council, if not enough alumni are represented in the faculty, staff and trustee members of the committee.
• Dyess and Henberg will recommend to board leadership the search consultant(s). This will be based on research into their prior searches, success, approach and fees.  We prefer a model where we take advantage of internal resources to do much of the work of the search to save time and money. As an example, rather than having a consultant visit campus to interview stakeholders to gather input to develop the vacancy announcement as is often done, we would prefer that we organize listening sessions with the various stakeholders and groups, including the full board, with Dyess and Henberg, and develop the vacancy announcement from those broad perspectives.