UM's search for a new president comes to Southeast Missouri

The search for a new president of the University of Missouri took to the road Tuesday with a public forum at the Delta Research Center in Portageville, Mo.

The meeting, which will feature Judith Haggard, UM curator from the Eighth Congressional District, is designed to give interested Missourians a chance to say what they want from the leader of the state's largest public university, said Scott Charton, director of communications for the four-campus system.

The university must replace Elson Floyd, who was chosen in December to become president of Washington State University. Floyd, who has led UM since January 2003, will depart from his post in late April, Charton said.

"We are trying to be responsive and be the University of Missouri and ask people what qualities they want in a president," Charton said.

The Delta Center forum begins at 1 p.m. It is the first of six meetings scheduled across the state over the next two weeks.

The nine-member Board of Curators hired executive search firm Baker-Parker Inc. to identify candidates. The board also established a 17-member advisory committee that includes students and faculty to help screen potential presidents.

In addition to candidates with an academic background, the curators could consider someone from the business or political world, Charton said. Floyd has made the economic development of the state a formal part of the university's mission for the first time, he noted.

The president of the university "is a CEO in the business sense as well as the academic sense," Charton said. "We need someone with business savvy."

Floyd's tenure at UM was marked by some rocky public relations, most notably involving basketball player Ricky Clemons and former coach Quinn Snyder and retrenchment prompted by falling levels of state spending. More recently, however, Floyd earned praise from around as he sought to forge a united message from the state's public colleges and universities.

"He went to the other campuses and talked about what are the common purposes," Charton said. "It was about how we are doing in public higher education and it was the good, the bad and the ugly."

The curators have set no deadline for completing the search, Charton said.

Check back at www.semissourian.com or in Wednesday's Southeast Missourian for more details.