At YSU, provost panel to narrow candidates list

Four or five finalists will be invited to campus for interviews this spring.

THE VINDICATOR

By HAROLD GWIN

VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — The committee searching for a new provost and vice president of academic affairs at Youngstown State University hopes to narrow the list of candidates to about 10 on Feb. 22.

That’s the official cutoff date for applications in a national search that began last fall to replace Dr. Robert K. Herbert, who drowned in the Pacific Ocean while vacationing in Costa Rica in July 2007. Herbert had been at YSU for just two years.

The search is “on target,” said Dr. Ikram Khawaja, YSU’s interim provost and vice president for academic affairs, who accepted the temporary appointment to the post in August.

Dr. Joseph Edwards, dean of the College of Fine and Performing Arts and chairman of the university’s search committee, said YSU received more than two dozen inquiries about the position. The exact number of formal applications wasn’t immediately available.

The university is being aided in the search by Greenwood & Associates Inc., an executive search firm in Miramar, Fla.

Edwards said the search committee will meet Feb. 22 to narrow the list of candidates to about 10 and then schedule off-site interviews, probably at the airport in Pittsburgh, with that group March 10 and 11.

The list will then be narrowed to four or five individuals who will be invited to visit campus for additional interviews.

The provost will serve as the chief academic officer of the university, leading the Division of Academic Affairs which includes The Beeghly College of Education, Bitonte College of Health & Human Services, the College of Fine & Performing Arts, the College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences, the College of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics, the Williamson College of Business Administration and the School of Graduate Studies and Research.

The library, international studies program and the outreach and continuing education programs fall under the provost’s purview as well.

The provost serves as the chief executive officer in the absence of the president.

gwin@vindy.com