Regents Announce 14-Member Search Committee for WSU’s Ninth President

PULLMAN, Wash. — The Washington State University Board of Regents announced
Wednesday the 14-member committee that will assist the regents in searching for a successor to
President Samuel Smith.
The search for WSU’s ninth president is expected to take six to eight months and involve the
entire university community, said Peter Goldmark, Okanogan, board president and the chair of
the search committee.
“The board believes the process to find President Smith’s successor must be open and
reflect the diversity of our state. We seek the active involvement of our students, faculty, alumni
and all who care about WSU and higher education across Washington,” Goldmark said.
The committee, drawn from names recommended by numerous WSU constituent groups,
reflects that philosophy, he said.
The committee includes:
— three regents, Ken Alhadeff, board vice president, and Phyllis Campbell, past president,
both of Seattle, and Goldmark.
— three faculty members, Shira Broschat, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer
Science; Jim Cook, Department of Plant Pathology; and Patty Sias, Murrow School of
Communication.
— two administrators, Hal Dengerink, dean, WSU Vancouver, and Jane Lawrence, director,
WSU Honors College.
— two staff members, Barbara Aston, assistant to the provost, and Doris Lohrey-Birch,
secretary senior, Department of Entomology.
— two students, Angelique Grant, a doctoral student in interdisciplinary studies, and Todd
Dunham, a sophomore pre-med student from Seattle.
— the chair of the WSU Foundation Board of Trustees, Jack Creighton, Bellevue, and Rich
Lemargie, Ephrata, representing the WSU Alumni Association.
Ford Webb Associates, a nationally recognized executive search firm, has been retained to
assist in the selection process. The committee will work with the firm to develop a set of
candidate requirements.
“The search committee invites and encourages people to submit their ideas on the
characteristics needed in WSU’s next president,” Goldmark said. “The committee wants to ensure
that everyone has an opportunity to be heard about the type of person WSU needs to lead it
into the next millennium.”
Comments can be sent to Goldmark in care of the President’s Office.
The regents will discuss the search during its next meeting on Friday morning, Sept. 10. The
committee will formally advertise for the presidency in mid-September when it publishes a list of
candidate qualifications.
Smith will retire on July 1, 2000. He is currently chair-elect of the National Association of
State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, is a member of the Kellogg Commission on the
Future of the State and Land-Grant Universities, and is on the Board of Trustees of the Western
Governors University.
Washington State University was founded in 1890 as the state’s land-grant university and
today has branch campuses in Spokane, the Tri-Cities and Vancouver. WSU was recently
recognized as the nation’s No. 1 public university for student access and educational use of the
Internet, according to a leading Internet magazine; and is a top educational value, according a
new national survey of high school guidance counselors.
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