The Illinois Student Senate announced its list of student nominees for the search committee to find the next Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Wednesday night.

The committee will be in charge of narrowing the pool of candidates before the Chancellor’s office and Provost’s office make the final decision, said Billy Joe Mills, chairman of the Student Senate appointments committee and senior in LAS.

The committee is composed of six faculty and five students-four undergraduates and one graduate student, Mills said. The undergraduate members are Quincy Means, freshman in business; Ryan Ruzic, junior in LAS; Ariel Avila, junior in business; and Meredith Schaumburg, senior in communications. The graduate member is Staci Provezis.

Next semester, a search agency specialized in finding applicants for higher education positions will advertise for the position and recruit qualified applicants, Mills said. Out of the 30-40 people that are expected to apply, the committee will find the ten best and then begin interviewing them and reviewing resumes. Once the list gets smaller, the committee will do reference checks, Mills said. They will narrow the pool to two to four candidates, and then submit those names to the Chancellor’s and Provost office, he said.

The student senate found out a week ago that the Chancellor’s Office wanted to have the nominees in place before the end of the semester, Mills said. The student senate sent out e-mails to Registered Student Organization presidents and various other e-mail lists, said Josh Rohrscheib, co-president of the student senate and graduate student. The process was well publicized for its short notice, he said.

“We looked for students that were very diversified in what they’ve done on campus … because Student Affairs deals with diversity of all types,” Mills said. “We want a broad array of opinions.”

Rohrscheib said they looked for students with leadership experience on campus and would be assertive in meetings with administration.

“This position has a big influence on campus,” Mills said. “The students will have full voting rights just like the faculty.”

The search committee originally was supposed to have only three student members, but after e-mail discourse with Interim Vice Chancellor William Riley, the administration agreed to expand the membership to five students, Mills said.

“(The administration) were very cooperative,” he said. “They are always understanding of our viewpoint.”

Since the Vice Chancellor has the biggest impact on student life – overseeing housing, campus recreation, and Assembly Hall – it is “more appropriate to have more student involvement” in choosing the candidates, Rohrscheib said.