Seeking out the next UAS Chancellor
Baylee Schneider, Staff Writer
With the impending June 2020 retirement of UAS Chancellor Rick Caulfield comes the opportunity for a new chancellor to emerge.
PHOTO BY SIERRA LISSICK
The search
UA President Jim Johnsen has enlisted the executive search firm Storbeck/Pimentel & Associates to recruit the next chancellor.
UAS is in the second stage of Storbeck/Pimental’s Five-Step Search and Hiring Process, which begins with listening. In December, Storbeck/Pimental’s Alberto Pimentel and Emy Peña, facilitated listening sessions at all three UAS campuses.
Students in the Juneau session found it interesting that the firm had recruited for the UA system before; Johnsen had hired UAA Chancellor Cathy Sandeen through Storbeck/Pimenta. Storbeck/Pimenta is also actively working with UAA to find a new Campus Director for Kodiak College.
The committee
The second stage involves recruitment. Robin Gilcrist, Career Education Associate Professor, is faculty chair of the UAS Chancellor Search Committee. In her Jan. 22 Chair’s Report, Gilcrist said the committee was “optimistically hoping to place an ad during the week of January 6, 2020.”
Despite a week delay, the advertisement has been placed online in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Hispanic Outlook, Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, Diverse Issues in Higher Education, and Women in Higher Education.
“Once there are candidates to review, the committee will be soliciting input from students, faculty and staff,” Gilcrist said in the email.
Two-thirds of the 15-member search committee are from the Juneau campus, three come from Ketchikan, and two from Sitka. The members represent faculty, staff, top administrators, students and the three communities.
Kieran Poulson-Edwards and Teagan Vallevand represent the student body. (Poulson-Edwards is a reporter for the UAS Whalesong.)
For a full list of committee members, go to: http://www.uas.alaska.edu/chancellor/chancellor-search.html
The finale
The final three stages of Storbeck/Pimental’s Search and Hiring Process are assessing, referencing, and hiring.
“February 10 is the week that we are hoping to conduct preliminary candidate interviews,” Gilcrist said in a Jan. 21 email to the Whalesong.
According to the timeline on the UAS website, the screening of applications is to be done by the end of February.
By mid-March, finalists for the chancellor’s job are expected to visit the Juneau, Ketchikan and Sitka campuses. The committee is to recommend its top candidates to UA President Johnsen by late April, who will make the final decision and hire the new UAS chancellor.