Chancellor Jones announces the next step when the search for successor begins | News

Urbana – As the search for the University of Illinois’ next chancellor begins, the current Chancellor Robert Jones looks forward to his next steps.

The University of Washington announced on Monday that Jones would take over as his President August 1, just a month after he steps down from the UI.

“Just because I go to another leadership role, rather than living here, doing something else, it still makes it very, very hard because we really love this university, we love this community and we certainly hope we are left behind The better than we found it, and this has been the most deep experience of my 46 years in higher education, ”Jones told News Gazette on Monday night.

It was only about a day after Jones told UI President Tim Kille about his decision, but he said the couple had a good conversation about it.

Jones said he received recruiting messages from many other universities throughout his time at UI.

Within 48 hours after his November announcement that he would go down, Jones said he had several offers and was originally not convinced he wanted them.

“I opposed this first because I wasn’t quite sure if I would be willing to spend another five years leading a university, but the more I had a chance of interface to talk to the Trustees and the search company , It became very clear to me that this was an important option that was adapted to my values ​​and my passion for education, ”Jones said. “It’s a world -class university, like Illinois, and my wife and I look forward to trying to have a very strong influence there, which we have been able to do here for the last eight and a half years.”

In August he will be in an office in UW’s Gerberding Hall, named after William Gerberding.

Gerberding was UI’s second Chancellor, just before he was UWS 27. President.

Meanwhile, UI is only at the beginning of his search for Jones’ successor.

Jennifer Bernhard, head of the electric and computer technology department and chair of the search committee to advise the president of the selection of the next chancellor, said she has been invited to hear similar priorities across the campus committee under open forums.

“The result of the process for me was actually quite inspiring at the end of these two days because of the adaptation that came out of itself when we asked each group the same questions,” Bernhard said. “These groups are not just students, but staff at different levels, different functional offices – facilities and services, faculty, deans, you name it.”

At this early stage, the primary task of the search committee is to come up with a “job description” for the next chancellor that reflects the nature of the campus community and its priorities.

The committee held open forums 28-29. January for students, faculty and staff to provide input.

This input will be collected for written reports to the Kille, although he also participated in some of the forums himself.

Bernhard said the committee feels that these forums were not promoted early or sufficiently enough for students, so an extra forum is scheduled for 1 p.m. 3.30pm Wednesday in the campus instruction facility, and the availability of online input portal has also been expanded by Wednesday.

Based on the feedback so far, Bernhard said that people seem optimistic about the future and feel that the university is on the right track, which has been useful for the committee to identify the kind of person they are looking for.

“Chancellor Jones, he puts the tone in several ways that also came through,” Bernhard said. “It is partly a tribute to his leadership and how he has influenced campus.”

Some of the most important priorities in a row for the next chancellor that has been divorced so far are support for UI’s Earth-Assigned Mission, Accessibility, Empathy, Support to Academic Freedom, a desire for UI to be available in every sense of The word and recognition of the user interface as a complex device with value at all levels.

There are already a lot of qualifications for distilling to a job description, but Bernhard feels sure of the committee’s prospects.

She has considerable knowledge of the user interface after 25 years there and lots of experience after the chairman of several search committees, although “this is the highest.”

“The committee is also a fantastic collection of really talented and thought -provoking individuals,” Bernhard said. “The Senate gave me a fantastic selection to lead with the breadth of experiences and the breadth of perspectives, but then respect for each other and would do the right thing for campus.”

One thing they all want to prioritize is to find a pool of candidates who all fit the description made by the campus community, but everyone has things that separate them as unique.

Bernhard also said there will be no open conversations or interviews with the pool of candidates because the committee hopes to attract people who may already have positions elsewhere and do not want to jeopardize anything on that front.

Alongside the UI campus members, external search company Greenwood/Asher & Associates LLC has been hired to complete the search.

Adrienne Nazon, Vice President of External Relationships and Communication for the UI system, said the company was chosen because of its experience of conducting chancellor searches in similar institutions and systems, including UI earlier.

It was one of five companies to submit proposals and the final fee will amount to one -third of the new chancellor’s negotiated salary plus other direct costs, Nazon said.