Provost Search Update

Dear DU Community Members:

In September 2019, Chancellor Haefner emailed the campus an update on the search for the next provost and executive vice chancellor. The search committee began meeting in October 2019. We took time to interview several search firms and recommended to the Chancellor that we work with Storbeck Search. In November, the committee carefully detailed the values, skills, and characteristics of the individual we think would best serve the university and the job description was posted in December. You can view the list of committee members and read the full job description here. Every search committee member signed a confidentiality agreement during one of our first meetings, committing to not share the identities of any applicant or finalist during any time in this search process.

In January, the committee began reviewing potential candidates. We also received anti-bias training from Kristen Deal, Director of the DU Office of Diversity and Inclusion. By the end of February, we had received 85 completed applications. The applicant pool was deep, diverse and highly qualified. From this initial pool, eleven candidates were invited to Denver for preliminary interviews. All eleven candidates accepted our invitation. These eleven candidates represent a wide range of gender, racial, ethnic, experiential and institutional diversity.  The preliminary interviews were held in late February. During these interviews, each candidate was asked the same set of questions about their prior experience, their guiding principles, and operational approaches to the Provost position. The interviews were extremely productive and illuminating. Chancellor Haefner also talked with each applicant interviewed by the committee.

The search committee selected a group of candidates to advance for referencing. This week the committee, working alongside Chancellor Haefner, will select the finalists who will be invited to campus over the next two weeks. Chancellor Haefner and the committee are identifying the campus stakeholder representatives who will meet with candidates. The committee understands and supports that the final campus interviews will be discreet and confidential.
 

Terri M. Davis, Search Committee Co-Chair
terri.m.davis@du.edu

Darrin Hicks, Search Committee Co-Chair 

Darrin.Hicks@du.edu