100 are on list to succeed Moeser

UNC-CH panel meets privately

CHAPEL HILL -- The committee searching for a successor to UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor James Moeser began to look at candidates Wednesday, starting with a list of 100 people who have applied or been nominated.

The committee met for less than an hour in open session to approve a job description and hear an update on the process from Bill Funk, a search consultant. Then the panel went behind closed doors to look at an early slate of candidates.

The names emerged from a process of networking and reaching out to leaders in higher education to seek nominations. The committee also placed ads in major national higher education publications, including those that focus on women and minorities.

Funk said his firm had corresponded with about 1,000 people in search of suggestions, including hundreds of people he called "friends of the university." He described them as key donors, alumni and civic leaders.

"We've already developed, I think, an excellent pool of candidates, active candidates," Funk said. "I think there will be others who will join this group that we've already amassed."

Funk called UNC-CH's process, so far, "a textbook search." The consultant has conducted more than 250 searches for education leaders, including those for 70 current university presidents. Funk will be paid about $100,000 by the UNC-CH committee.

Funk said he had reached out to his "proprietary list" of 600 people in higher education and business. They aren't necessarily targets for the job, he said, but are contacts who might suggest others.

The consultant said some of the 100 people on the early list have already declined or aren't particularly serious. One, he said, was an elementary school teacher from Georgia.

The number of candidates qualified to lead a complex and highly rated campus such as UNC-CH will be quite small, he said.

"I think you're going to find 10 really superb people probably by the end of the day," he said. "There might be 20 that would merit some real interest."

The next chancellor will preside over a university with a $2 billion budget and a growing student population that recently topped 28,000. The job description approved Wednesday presents the challenges facing the next leader: enrollment growth, competition for research dollars and a huge wave of hiring to replace nearly 41 percent of the faculty who are age 55 or older.

"Preferably the candidate will have served in major leadership roles in higher education, ideally at a top research university with an academic health center," the job description said. "He or she is expected to be an inspiring, innovative leader with a passion for public education and an appreciation for the role of this university in the life of the state of North Carolina."