Message from the Presidential Search Committee

Members of the Kent State Community,

Our search for Kent State University’s 12th president has taken important next steps, with the online release of a presidential search prospectus and placement of national advertising in major higher education publications.  In these materials we believe we’ve captured Kent State’s dynamic progress, unique spirit, and bright future in ways that will be intriguing to highly qualified individuals.  

Developed with broad input from our community, the prospectus introduces Kent State to potential candidates, highlighting recent accomplishments, opportunities and challenges facing the next president, key qualifications and success factors the Board of Trustees and the Presidential Search Committee are seeking in the best candidates for the position, and how to submit applications and nominations.

National advertising begins with the Sept. 6 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education and will continue in other publications and online resources over the next few months.  Members of our community can request the ads as PDFs to distribute throughout their own professional networks via email.  More than 15 major research universities now are conducting presidential searches, heightening the competition and illustrating the need for everyone to get engaged in promoting the opportunity and suggesting names of highly qualified prospects.

Our recruitment efforts not only will shine the spotlight on our presidential search, they will bring a great deal of visibility to Kent State and to our history-making momentum. The search firm will distribute the prospectus widely to prospects as well as to top leaders in academe and the public and private sectors seeking nominations.
 
As noted earlier, these materials have been developed with input of trustees, president’s cabinet, deans, chairs and directors, faculty, staff, students, alumni, donors, community leaders, and the public.  To date nine consultation meetings, including two open forums, have been held and a survey posted online.

The committee continues to seek and welcome input on the qualities most important in the future president and nominations for the position.  Suggestions can be sent by email to presidentialsearch@kent.edu, and for access to the survey and other updates, please visit the search website.


Richard Marsh ’73
Chair
Presidential Search Committee