Local Advisory Committee brings high expectations to presidential search

What could entice a businessman, a banker, and a farmer to travel back and forth to Starkville, giving up weekday after weekday to meet and meet and meet? What could entice an historian, a physicist, a home economist to give up summer day after summer day to meet and meet and meet? What about the student, public relations person, department head, researcher, extension specialist, and engineer who did the same thing?

The motivation was not money or reward, not fun or fellowship, not even an exciting Bulldog sporting event. The need that prompted these actions was the announced resignation of Dr. Donald Zacharias as Mississippi State's president.

People from all parts of the MSU community joined together to search for a worthy successor to this highly regarded leader. Backgrounds differed. Communication styles differed. Age and experience varied. Approaches varied. There was, however, a unifying sense of purpose. All were deeply committed to finding the best leader possible for the university.

The first task in any personnel search is to determine the qualifications for the position. When the search committee is very large and diverse, when the community to be served is even more diverse, it might be expected that there would be differences in opinion concerning the attributes which would produce the best president. Not so. The Presidential Search Local Advisory Committee discovered remarkable agreement when they rated the items considered most important as presidential criteria.

Many of us have heard that only God could meet the expectations of a presidential search committee (and God already has a job!). The Local Advisory Committee tried to be reasonable, knowing that we were looking for a human being, but the expectations were high. No one was looking for an ordinary human being. The new president of Mississippi State will face pressures and seeming paradoxes which would overwhelm most individuals.

This is not a negative condition, however. Many of the pressures come from positive conditions. Tomorrow's president will face serious expectations to be a visionary. As the world prepares to enter the 21st century, all eyes are on the leaders who will guide us there. While this is intriguing and exciting, it is still pressure.

The president will face pressure to be able to relate well to diverse constituencies and to be able to capitalize on that for the good of the university. The new president's tenure will see burgeoning application of emerging technologies, accompanied as ever by legal and ethical concerns not faced by prior leaders. While this is challenging and exciting, it is still pressure.

The president will face pressure to balance concerns for teaching and research, for academics and athletics, for service to internal and to external constituencies. The young people in today's universities deserve a leader of impeccable integrity and a model of professional decorum. Perhaps more than ever before, we hear of the need for positive role models and for conduct which is above reproach.

But what about the paradoxes? The new president will be expected to be a visionary, with a track record of making tough decisions in order to bring vision to fruition.

The new president will be expected to be highly regarded by peers. High regard, however, does not necessarily equal popularity. The next president will be expected to be an innovator, but not at the expense of established ways or tradition.

The Search Local Advisory Committee, the IHL Board Search Committee, and our search consultant were all aware of these predictable pressures and paradoxes.

The candidate pool was strong. As this issue of Alumnus goes to press, the new president has not yet been named. The person who will face those pressures and rise above them is still one of those strong candidates. The excellent candidates and the attractiveness of the opportunities offered at Mississippi State can only lead to optimism about the future.

Our new leader will be fortunate to have the far reaching university family to provide support in facing and dealing with formidable pressure and confusing paradox.

With the backing of alumni, friends, faculty, and students-and possessing the attributes outlined by the search committees-our new president will have virtually limitless opportunities.

Couvillion

Dr. Marion B. "Mike" Couvillion, assistant professor in the Department of Communication, is immediate past chair of the Faculty Senate at Mississippi State and chair of the Presidential Search Local Advisory Committee. The 34-member panel, made up of faculty, staff, alumni, and friends of the university, was involved in efforts to name Mississippi State's 16th president.