NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Nancy O’Brien, (616) 234-3535
GRCC UNFOLDS DETAILS OF SECOND ROUND IN PRESIDENTIAL
SEARCH;
PLAN TO REPRESENT EMPLOYEES AND THE PUBLIC EXPLAINED
September 11, 2008 Grand Rapids, MI - At a special meeting Wednesday night the Grand Rapids Community College Board of Trustees announced how the second round of the search for a new president would unfold. Although the search committee membership is not yet established, the intention is to have wider college representation.
The new search committee, with 18 members as opposed to 12 in the first round, will meet the guidelines as directed by the Open Meetings Act and will operate within the framework as defined by the law. The members of the committee will meet to review candidate’s credentials, conduct interviews, determine qualifications and make recommendations to the Board. Members will be asked to take an oath of confidentiality.
Gary Schenk, GRCC board chairperson, said, “To secure the best and most qualified candidates, it is necessary to maintain confidentiality during the search process. I think most citizens have interviewed for a job at some time in their life when they didn’t want others to know they were doing so, and I think they understand this concept completely.”
Once finalists are selected deliberations and selection of the president will occur in an open meeting in accordance with the statute.
“We will have a community-at-large member on the search committee, maybe more,” said Schenk. “And the public should remember that they elected us, the members of the GRCC Board, and we represent them in this process, just as we do in every meeting on every issue during our term of office.”
Law requires that a search committee of this kind must include the appointment of at least one student, one representative of the general community, a faculty member, an administrator, and an alumni. The college trustees may also participate on the search committee as long as their number does not constitute a quorum of the Board of Trustees. The Student Congress President may continue with the committee and an alumni member may be chosen from graduates at large. Five faculty will be recommended, one member representing each of GRCC’s employee unions, and four representing non-union employees, plus one Vice President. Others may be on the committee as deemed necessary by the Board of Trustees.
Grand Rapids Community College, established in 1914, offers both liberal arts and workforce development degrees, classes and workshops. Student enrollment on the urban campus for both credit and non-credit courses is approximately 26,000 this year.
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