Elaina Eakle
ehe001@marietta.edu
The Marietta College Presidential Search Committee is on track to select the next president of the college after holding successful airport interviews on April 16-17.
“The search is progressing well,” committee co-chairs Barbara Fitzgerald and Grant Callery said in an email to The Marcolian. “We are extremely gratified at the level of interest in the position from a most impressive group of men and women. The interviews, in our view, went very well.”
Ten candidates out of a pool of over 100 applicants were selected to participate in the airport interviews over the weekend. Provost Dr. Janet Bland explained that airport interviews allow candidates to maintain anonymity, which is common in academia.
“These are for semifinalists, and it allows people to fly in, speak with us, and fly home easily and anonymously,” Bland said.
Bland was pleased with the selection of candidates for the interviews.
“We have a lot of great applicants, so I think it’s a very strong pool,” she said. “I am very pleased with R. H. Perry, the search consulting firm and all the assistance they have provided in compiling and shaping the candidate pool.”
Fitzgerald and Callery said that the next steps for the committee involve narrowing the semi-finalists down to a final candidate list.
“There are a few things, including deeper reference checking and other preparatory conversations before those continued interviews and the form they will take will be finalized,” Fitzgerald and Callery said. “We will continue to keep the campus community advised as we move toward completion of this most important search for the future of MC.”
According to Tom Perry, executive director of strategic communications and marketing, the college is on schedule to hire either a permanent or interim president by July 1.
“The committee’s leadership has consistently communicated their belief that having a new president in place by July 1 is a realistic goal,” he said. “They have also been clear that if they don’t feel they have found Marietta College’s next leader then they will name an interim president and begin the search again in the fall.”
Senior and former Student Body President Kennedy Clyde serves as the student representative on the search committee and was satisfied with the level of student input considered in the search.
“I am truly grateful to have been selected to serve in this role, as I have the opportunity to help shape the future of an institution that I love dearly by virtue of participating on this historic committee,” she said. “I am confident that Marietta College will continue to thrive and prosper in the upcoming years, and well into the future.”
Junior and current Student Body President Emily Drabeck is likewise optimistic about the next president and the future of MC.
“My hope for the new president is that they will become immersed into the Marietta College culture as well as the Marietta community,” she said. “I hope that they will bring a fresh energy, knowledge and perspective to the college as we strive to create a strong institution.”
