MURRAY – The Murray State University Board of Regents Presidential Search Committee is currently in closed session during a special called meeting that started at 8:15 a.m. As noted on the agenda and announced by committee chair Leon Owens prior to going into closed session, the purpose is to hold discussions which are likely to result in the appointment of an individual employee.
While it was not overtly announced, based on the discussion prior to entering closed session, it was clear that the committee would be interviewing semi-finalists. In the open session, academic search consultants Wanda Bigham and Margaret Venable provided a brief orientation to committee members regarding the interview process.
Each candidate is allotted one hour for their interview. Each candidate will answer 12 questions. No follow-up questions are allowed; however, some questions have multiple parts, and in the event a candidate does not address all parts of a question, Owens will ask them to clarify their answer for any portions not addressed in the initial response.
The search committee last met on Jan. 31. After a closed session, which lasted approximately two hours, the committee announced 11 semi-finalists. To protect the candidates’ anonymity, the semi-finalists were only identified by number.
It is not clear whether the committee will be interviewing all 11 semi-finalists today, but several made comments in open session this morning that today will be a “long day.” After every other interview, the committee will get a 15-minute break, which means that it will take approximately 12 and a half hours to conduct 11 interviews.
This is the first of two special called meetings the committee has scheduled this week. The second will be tomorrow, and like today, it will also include a closed session; however, that agenda includes an action after the committee reconvenes in open session, namely, the selection of finalists.
Both today’s meeting and tomorrow’s can be viewed on livestream. Links to the respective meetings can be found here.
