By Tim Leeds
Montana State University President Dr. Terry Roark and Commissioner of Higher Education Dr. Richard Crofts will be in Havre, along with members of their staff, to collect input on the search for a new chancellor of Montana State University-Northern.
Scheduled meetings include those with Mike Rao, current chancellor, and heads of staff and deans of the colleges; with students of the university. and with members of the community.
Roger Barber, provost and vice chancellor of academic affairs, has agreed to remain in his position for another year during the transition period. Barber had previously submitted his resignation from the provost position.
Rao, who came to MSU-Northern in the spring of 1998, has accepted the presidency of Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Mich. That position becomes effective on July 1.
The search to find a permanent president of Montana State University is also progressing. A release from Dr. Joyce Scott, deputy commissioner at the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education, was included in Rao's last university update on the university's web page.
In the release, Scott wrote that the search committee narrowed the list of candidates from 60 to 16 in a meeting on June 1. References of those 16 are now being checked by members of the committee and their search consultant.
The committee is scheduled to meet again on June 30 to discuss the results of the reference calls and to select a smaller number of candidates to invite for further interviews. On completion of those interviews candidates will be selected to be asked to participate in interviews with a broad range of MSU's constituents.
Scott wrote in the release that they are very pleased with the quality of the candidate pool and have every reason to believe that the search will be completed in September or October.
Interim president Roark was selected at the end of January to head the university system until a permanent president could be found. Former President Mike Malone died last December.
