The State University of New York
Guide to Presidential Searches at State-Operated Institutions
………………………………………………………………………….
Table of Contents
I. Legal Authority for Nomination and for Appointment
3
II. Introduction
3
III. Campus Presidential Search
3
A. Preliminary Steps in the Search Process
3
B. The Search Process
4
C. The Selection Process
7
D. Board of Trustees Approval
8
E. Reopened Searches
9
F. Internal Candidates
9
IV. Approval
9
2
Guidelines for the Selection of a President
When a Vacancy Occurs at a State-operated Campus
of the State University of New York
I. Legal Authority for Nomination and for Appointment
The legal authority to appoint the president or chief administrative officer of a State-
operated institution of the State University is vested in the University Board of Trustees
by Section 355(2)(g) of the Education Law. The council of each such institution is given
responsibility for recommending a candidate or candidates to the Board by Section
356(3)(a). (Section 6004 (c) gives this same power to the Trustees of the College of
Environmental Science and Forestry.) The Board of Trustees may also appoint a
president or chief administrative officer in the event that no council recommendation is
made, or where a council recommendation fails to comply with the Trustees’ standards
and procedures.
II. Introduction
The State University of New York Board of Trustees considers the selection of campus
presidents to be one of the most important of its duties. The procedures below are
intended to assist the councils of State-operated campuses in the search for, and
nomination of, individuals to fill the position of president. It should be noted that the term
“council” in the following is intended to refer equally to the Board of Trustees of the
State University College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
This document is intended to provide a set of guidelines that should be utilized to conduct
presidential searches. Recognizing the great diversity of size, scope and mission of the
campuses in the SUNY system, the specific search process at an individual campus may
be modified as deemed appropriate by the Chancellor in consultation with the campus
council chair.
III. Campus Presidential Search
A. Preliminary Steps in the Search Process
As soon as practical after it is known that a presidential vacancy will occur, the
Chancellor (or the Chancellor’s representative) shall reach out to the council
chair to provide advice and instructions in planning the search and the criteria
to be used in the selection of a new president. The Council chair should consult
with campus constituency groups regarding the search plans.
Unless otherwise agreed upon in advance by the Chancellor and the council
chair, the search committee shall consist of four members of the council
(including the chair), six members of the full time teaching faculty
of the campus,
one student, one alumni representative, one campus-related foundation
3
representative, one academic dean, one professional or support staff member and
one incumbent or retired SUNY president from another campus or a member of
the Chancellor’s senior staff designated by the Chancellor. In the case of
campuses larger than 10,000 FTE, the Council chair may choose, after discussion
with and authorization by the Chancellor or the Chancellor’s representative, to
increase the size of the search committee to include an additional member of the
teaching faculty, a graduate student and an additional representative from the
campus foundation board.
The council chair shall appoint a chair of the search committee. Generally, the
council chair also serves as the chair of the search committee. If the council chair
is unwilling or unable to serve as chair of the search committee, the council chair
shall appoint another member of the council to serve as chair of the search
committee.
Taking care to assure that faculty representation on the search committee speaks
for a broad spectrum of faculty opinion, the campus faculty governance group
will work with the Chancellor’s representative to devise a nomination and
election process to select the faculty representatives to the search committee by
secret ballot. The voting process must be widely publicized with sufficient notice
to allow any interested faculty to participate in the nomination and voting process.
The council chair shall invite the appropriate campus and community groups to
submit recommendations for all other positions on the search committee, and shall
make the appointments to the remaining positions on the search committee from
the recommendations submitted. The committee itself should represent a broad
diversity of opinion among the primary campus constituencies.
The Chancellor shall designate a liaison representative to serve as a nonvoting
member of the search committee. That representative shall have full access to the
files of the committee, and shall be responsible for reporting at regular intervals to
the Chancellor and the Trustees regarding the progress of the search and the work
of the search committee. The representative shall provide general assistance to
the search committee as needed for each step in the process.
The council chair and the Chancellor, or the Chancellor’s representative, shall
agree on an expected timetable for the search and nomination process.
The Chancellor’s office shall provide a list of nationally recognized
organizations with established expertise in academic recruitment and screening
from which the council shall select one to assist in their search.
4
A campus staff liaison shall be appointed to assist the search committee and to
coordinate the clerical work of the committee. A budget for the search should be
determined in conjunction with the chief financial officer of the campus and
arrangements made for a search office and support staff. The campus is
responsible for the full cost of the presidential search and the budget should be
sufficient to cover the cost of hiring a professional search consultant, advertising
the position, travel of candidates to interviews as well as the usual telephone,
postage and duplicating expenses associated with a search.
B. The Search Process
At the first search committee meeting, the search chair, along with the
Chancellor’s representative, shall acquaint the committee members with the
search procedures in general and with any specific instructions from the council,
the Chancellor, and the Trustees. The search committee shall be advised that the
council is required to send a list of no fewer than three names of acceptable
candidates to the Chancellor for consideration, and that the council may submit
its opinion on the relative strengths and weaknesses of each candidate whose
name is forwarded for consideration by the Chancellor. The timetable for the
search shall be presented to the committee members and a commitment obtained
from each member to attend all meetings and all interviews.
At the first search committee meeting the importance of confidentiality shall be
discussed. All members of the committee must agree to preserve the
confidentiality of the search and the names of all candidates. If any time
throughout the search, there is evidence that a member of the committee has
breached the confidentiality of the search, that member may be dismissed from
the committee by a majority vote of the committee. The decision of whether or
not to replace the dismissed member will be in the sole discretion of the
committee.
In consultation with the Chancellor’s representative and the search consultant,
the committee should assess the needs of the institution and the type and style of
leadership desired in a new president. Combining the results of this assessment
and the required criteria set forth by the Chancellor, the search committee shall
develop, and submit to the Chancellor (or the Chancellor’s representative) for
approval, the material to be used in the advertisement of the vacancy and the
recruitment of candidates for the position.
5
The vacancy shall be advertised nationally. The search consultant shall assist
the search committee in recruiting and evaluating candidates.
The members of the search committee shall review all applications and
nominations for the position. Letters should be sent to those who do not meet
the minimum qualifications for the position as soon as practical.
From the remaining pool of candidates, the committee shall select a group of
approximately 20 names whom they judge to be the strongest applicants.
Additional information may be collected on this group by the search consultant
and committee members. Additional information may include reference
checking (but only from references named by the candidate in order to preserve
the candidate’s confidentiality), and appropriate internet searches.
When additional information is collected and reference checking, if done, has
been completed, the committee shall meet to review the applications of all
candidates and to discuss the additional information obtained. The committee
will then select a group of approximately 8-12 candidates to be interviewed at a
site convenient to the committee and to the candidates. The site selected for the
interviews must be designed to assure that the confidentiality of the names of
the candidates to be interviewed will be maintained. Prior to the interviews, the
search consultant will conduct a thorough review of each candidate’s credentials
and check references supplied by each candidate, and provide the search
committee with the results of that review.
All members of the search committee should attend the personal interviews. The
Chancellor’s representative will also attend these interviews. Each interview
will typically last at least one hour, using a list of questions to be asked of all
candidates. Time should also be allotted during this interview to allow each
candidate to ask questions of the committee.
Following these interviews, the committee should meet to discuss and review
the qualifications of the candidates interviewed and to select a small group of
three to five candidates as semi-finalists. At this point, most searches will
proceed with publicly announced campus visits by semi-finalists. Other
searches, as described below, may proceed as a representational search. Where
appropriate during campus visits, the candidate’s spouse, or other family
members or associates, may also be invited to visit the campus. At this stage,
candidates will be asked to allow the search committee to check references,
other than those names provided by the candidates. Candidates other than the
6
semi-finalists should be notified prior to the release to the public of the names of
candidates to be invited to the campus.
Up to this point in the search process, the names of the candidates have been
kept confidential by the committee. When the semi-finalists are scheduled to
visit campus, their names are released to the public, along with general
information about their background and qualifications. Their names and
curriculum vitae shall also be forwarded to the SUNY Board of Trustees at this
stage, although the Trustees and the Chancellor may - in confidence - request
access to search committee documents, including candidates’ curriculum vitae,
at any point in the process. However, all information regarding the reference
checks, committee discussion and voting on the various applicants is still
confidential and may not be divulged at any time.
Campus visits shall be designed to allow a large number of campus and
community members to meet and hear from each candidate. In planning these
visits, the committee should remember that at this stage of the process they are
recruiting the candidates as well as evaluating them.
All members of the council should actively participate in the interviews of the
semi-finalist candidates who visit the campus.
The Chancellor shall be given an opportunity to meet with and interview
candidates, either at the first interview stage or at the semi-finalist campus visit
stage. The timing of such interviews shall be at the discretion of the Chancellor.
The Chancellor may, at this time, also require that the candidates be interviewed
by the Provost or other members of the Chancellor’s senior staff.
When deemed necessary by the Chancellor and the State University Board of
Trustees, or when initiated by the council chair and agreed upon by the
Chancellor and State University Board of Trustees, the search will be deemed a
representational search where the search committee will be the representatives
of the campus in lieu of campus visits and where the semi-finalists’ names are
not publicized to the community. The sole criterion upon which this decision
rests is a determination as to whether a traditional search process with public
campus meetings would inhibit the generation of a suitable pool of excellent
candidates. During a representational search, members of the college council
and other designated members of the college community will be invited to meet
with the semi-finalist candidates under strict rules of confidentiality. The
decision whether to hold campus visits will be discussed with the college
7
council and search committee but it is in the sole discretion of the Chancellor
and Board of Trustees of the State University of New York.
Prior to any final vote by the search committee or the council, the members of
the State University Board of Trustees shall also be given an opportunity to
meet with and interview all finalists.
C. The Selection Process
The search committee shall meet and deliberate on the merits of each candidate
who visited the campus. It is recommended that all council members be invited
to join the search committee at this meeting to hear the search committee’s
discussions regarding the relative merits of each candidate. The search
committee is strongly urged to forward as many acceptable names as possible to
the council for consideration.
The search committee shall forward to the council the list of all acceptable
candidates, along with a short (one page) synopsis of the relative strengths and
weaknesses of each candidate.
The council then shall meet and deliberate on the relative merits of each of the
candidates whose names have been forwarded to them by the search committee.
While the recommendation of candidates to the Chancellor and the State
University Board of Trustees is the prerogative of the council alone, consensus
between the council and the search committee should be sought and
encouraged. Serious disagreement about the final candidates recommended by
the council, particularly any disagreement that clearly follows major
constituency lines, suggests a potentially serious problem with the search
process.
The council shall recommend three acceptable finalist candidates to the
Chancellor for consideration. The council may submit its opinion in written
form on the relative strengths and weaknesses of each finalist candidate whose
name is forwarded for consideration by the Chancellor.
D. Board of Trustees Approval
The Chancellor, in compliance with statute, shall provide to the Board of
Trustees a copy of the recommendations made by the College Council and
background material on each candidate. The Chancellor shall then recommend a
candidate to the Board of Trustees for its consideration.
8
The Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees plus any additional
interested members of the Board of Trustees will interview the candidate
recommended by the Chancellor at a time and place arranged by the Secretary
of the Board of Trustees. Prior to this meeting with the candidate, the
Chancellor will provide to the Board of Trustees a proposed annual
compensation package with background compensation data. After its
deliberations, the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees will forward its
recommendations on both the candidate and the compensation package to the
full Board of Trustees.
A recommended candidate approved by the Executive Committee of the Board
of Trustees will be invited to attend the next scheduled meeting of the Board of
Trustees. The Board of Trustees will meet with the candidate in executive
session before a final presentation and vote.
E. Reopened Searches
Should the Chancellor or the Board of Trustees decide that the circumstances warrant the
reopening of a search, it is within their discretion to require that the council chair appoint,
in accordance with these guidelines, a new search committee.
F. Internal Candidates
Should anyone from within the campus community wish to apply for the presidency, that
individual must do so by way of a formal application prior to the closing date for the
receipt of nominations. Any such internal candidate who does not formally apply for the
position and participate in the entire search process will not be considered for the
position. Interim or Acting Presidents may not be candidates for the presidency unless
they have received the written permission of the Chancellor to participate as candidates.
IV. Approval
The guidelines were approved by the State University of New York Board of Trustees
effective January 25, 2012.
9
/media/Library/ESPYderivatives/files/Miscellaneous/2010-11 Misc/2010-11 Presidential Search/GUIDELINES FOR
PRESIDENTIAL SEARCHES revised 1 24 2012.final.doc
10
