Regents form chancellor search committee

By Laura Diamond

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The State Board of Regents announced Thursday the 21-member committee to find the next chancellor for the University System of Georgia.

The Texas firm R. William Funk & Associates will help the group conduct a national search, Regents Chairman Willis Potts said. The committee will provide up to five candidates to the regents, who will choose.

Chancellor Erroll Davis, who started in 2006, announced last month he will retire when his contract expires at the end of June.

Davis said the election made this an appropriate time to leave because the chancellor and new governor should have a close working relationship. The search committee includes Philip Wilheit, a member of Gov.-elect Nathan Deal's transition team.

The group's first meeting has not been scheduled, but a primary duty will be to write a job description, university system spokesman John Millsaps said.

University of Georgia president and search committee member Michael Adams said the new chancellor should be "someone adept at representing our interests" considering the state is struggling economically and there will be new leadership in the Capitol and Legislature.

The committee includes seven regents: Potts, Ken Bernard, Bob Hatcher, Wanda Yancey Rodwell, Kessel Stelling, Ben Tarbutton and Richard Tucker.

Other members are:

• Glenda Battle, board chair of the Southwest Georgia Cancer Coalition
• Linda Bleicken, Armstrong Atlantic State University president
• Mike Cassidy, president of Georgia Research Alliance
• Kelly Henson, executive secretary of the Georgia Professional Standards Commission
• Susan Herbst, USG chief academic officer
• Hugh Hudson, Georgia State University professor and executive secretary of the American Association of University Professors
• John Lester, Columbus State University spokesman
• Gary McGaha, Atlanta Metropolitan College president
• Regent Emeritus Elridge McMillan
• Lin Mei, director of the Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics at the Medical College of Georgia
• Alton Standifer, Georgia Southern University student
• Craig Turner, Georgia College & State University professor and member of the USG Faculty Council

For more information go to: www.usg.edu/chancellor_search.