Yesterday marked the last day for candidates to submit applications to be the next president of Tufts, according to an ad in The Chronicle of Higher Education. The committee in charge of the search and the executive search firm Isaacson, Miller will now begin the process of narrowing the applicant pool.
While many presidential aspirants independently submitted their r?©sum?©s or were nominated, a great many people entered the running after being sought out by Isaacson, Miller. This is a normal way to conduct a search, according to Isaacson, Miller President John Isaacson.
Those involved with the search say that they are pleased with the way the candidate pool shaped up.
"We're very pleased; the search firm has found some really exceptional candidates," Trustee Secretary Linda Dixon said. "All three categories - deans and provosts of prestigious universities, presidents of less-prestigious schools, and people from outside of the academic world - are very well represented."
Isaacson said that the candidates whom the firm has contact are generally very excited. "We're getting a very good response. People know Tufts and respect it," he said.
One of the greatest assets that this search firm offers Tufts is its experience in finding candidates. Having recently finished a search for Brown University, Isaacson, Miller has the ability to tap into the network of contacts.
"We can bounce ideas off of [non-candidates] and ask for suggestions from presidents and deans of people they would recommend," Isaacson said.
Names of potential candidates are not being released because an applicant's career could be ruined if their employer were to find out that one of their employees was considering.
Though reluctant to give a date for completion, Isaacson said that the firm is nearly finished with the initial search. The next step will be to extensively research each candidate in order to provide a good picture of the pool. From there, a "short list" will be created, and the committee will begin to further interview candidates.
After meeting extensively with facility, students, and alumni, Isaacson believes that the committee has a clear definition of what they want in a president. Students and faculty were asked to submit recommendations to the Presidential Search Committee, and over 100 letters were received in response.
Before the committee could begin narrowing the list of candidates, however, it had to get an idea of what kind of university Tufts is and what challenges it faces.
"We look at searches as having three broad phases. First, learning about the institution itself... the second phase is learning about the relevant candidates... and during the third phase we are learning in-depth information about a small group of people," Isaacson said.
Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate President David Moon is the only undergraduate student on the committee. Though most of the committee's work is being kept secret, he was able to say that he believed the process was going well.
"The student perspective has been adequately and accurately represented on the committee... they've made a large effort to reach out to the student population," Moon said.
