Nominations for the search committee to assist the University of Illinois Board of Trustees in its efforts to select UI System President Timothy L. Killeen’s replacement are due April 8.
The Board of Trustees approved the composition of a 23-member search committee in February, representing eight constituencies, including faculty and students, among others. Killeen announced early January that he would step down from his position after his contract ends June 30, 2027.
Once the Board of Trustees receives the nominations, it votes to decide who serves on the committee, wrote Steve Witmer, senior writer and assistant director of media relations for UI System, in an email to The Daily Illini.
The nomination process is similar to those approved for the past two presidential searches in 2009 and 2014, but the committee is four members larger this time.
The presidency has been rife with controversy in the past two decades, with two presidents — B. Joseph White and Michael J. Hogan — resigning due to an admission scandal at the University and organizational initiatives that faculty were concerned about, respectively. In between White and Hogan, Stanley O. Ikenberry, who initially served from 1979 to 1995, returned in an acting capacity.
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After Hogan resigned in March 2012, the Board of Trustees named Robert Easter, then dean emeritus of ACES, as his replacement.
The search process for Easter’s successor took about eight months, with the Board of Trustees choosing Killeen. He has been in the post for more than 11 years, outpacing the combined service of the last four presidents.
The DI has broken down the selection process for the various nominees below.
Board trustees
There will be three trustees on the committee.
Board of Trustees Chairman Jesse Ruiz is responsible for determining which trustees want to serve on the committee, according to Witmer.
Faculty members
The UI System is composed of three universities: the University, the University of Illinois Chicago and the University of Illinois Springfield.
There will be eight facility faculty members on the committee: three from the University, three from UIC and two from UIS.
The University sent a Massmail to faculty in February, asking them to submit nominations, including self-nominations. The Senate ultimately selected nine candidates.
The slate of candidates from each campus is then sent to the University Senates Conference, which forwards the names to the board.
Students
With one from each campus, three students will sit on the committee.
The student governments at each campus, in consultation with their respective student trustees, select the student candidates. The Board of Trustees asked them to consider undergraduate, graduate and professional student involvement.
To collect nominations, the Illinois Student Council sent a self-nomination form to people within its network, according to Ariana Mizan, student trustee and senior in Business.
Members of ISC’s executive and legislative branches met to review the nominations and identify three candidates, according to Mizan. ISC then voted to approve the candidates.
The slate of candidates was then sent to Student Affairs, which is responsible for forwarding the names to the Board of Trustees, according to Mizan.
Academic professional staff
The academic professional staff will have one of its members on the committee.
The Board of Trustees tasked each campus’s Professional Advisory Committee to create and send a list of candidates to the University Professional Personnel Advisory Committee, which forwards the names to the Board of Trustees.
Civil service staff
The committee has one member of the civil service staff on it.
The Board of Trustees tasked each campus’s Staff Advisory Council to create and send a slate of candidates to the system’s Employee Advisory Committee, which forwards the names to the Board of Trustees.
Administrative officer
There will be three administrative officers on the committee, an increase of two from the previous searches.
The Board of Trustees selects which administrative officers serve on the committee after consulting with Killeen and the chancellors of the three campuses.
Alumni associations
With one from each of the campus’s alumni associations, there will be three alumni association members on the committee. Each of the alumni association’s board of directors selects and sends the board a slate of candidates.
In the previous searches, one member of the University of Illinois Alumni Association sat on the committee. It previously served as a systemwide alumni serving organization, but each campus now has its own alumni association, wrote Chuck Schrage, associate vice chancellor for alumni relations at the University of Illinois Springfield, in an email to The DI.
University of Illinois Foundation
There will be one member of the foundation on the committee.
The foundation’s board of directors selects and sends the Board of Trustees a slate of candidates.
