Guest Blog from Jane Davis - Presidential Search

First I would like to thank Mary Jinks and the University administration for the opportunity I have been given to serve on the Presidential Search Advisory Council as a representative of the Institute for Public Service and the University’s non-exempt staff. It is my hope that I represent both groups well.

The Presidential Search Advisory Council is made up of faculty, staff and students from UT campuses and institutes across the state. The role of the council is to review information from all of the candidates and make recommendations to the Search Committee, who will in turn make recommendations to the UT Board of Trustees.

This week was the first meeting of both the Search Committee and the Advisory Council. This meeting was webcast as will all the meetings during this process. If you are interested in viewing, the meeting and others will be posted on the Presidential Search Web site. The site is very user friendly and has a lot of information available, I encourage you to take a look at it. The web address is: http://president.tennessee.edu/search/index.html. The timeline associated with this search is very aggressive. The plan is to have the search completed and ready to select a president by the Board of Trustees’ meeting on October 22, 2010.

Most employees have heard comments during their time at UT that refer to our PDQ (position data questionnaire) and whether or not that is part of an individual’s responsibilities. Well, let me tell you that even the president’s job specification document states that he or she also will “perform other duties as assigned by the board.”

If you have comments or suggestions, I would love to hear them. The Web page also has a link to “UTALK” for your input and suggestions. There also is a link for those interested in applying as well as nominating individuals. I think this will be a challenging few months for both the committee and the council and I look forward to representing all our interests.