The University of North Georgia is searching for a new president since their current president, Bonita Jacobs, is resigning her position in June.
On Dec. 20, the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia announced the members for UNG’s Presidential Search Committee, featuring 15 members. The members on the committee are a mixture of regents, professors, faculty and students.
The Presidential Search Committee will help with the first part of the search. They will be joined by CarterBaldwin Executive Search.
People can follow the updates on the Presidential Search Committee page located on UNG’s website. Students and faculty can send nominations to [email protected]
On Jan. 23-25, there were four virtual listening sessions that were open to all students and faculty. These sessions were to discuss the expectations of qualified candidates and go over questions anyone had about the process.
The 2023 election of the Presidential Search Committee is as follows:
January-April:
Candidate recruitment and identification through the means of advertising, correspondence, and solicitation of nominations and direct recruiting of the candidates. The Presidential Search Committee and CarterBaldwin are held responsible for the candidate recruitment and identification tasks.
April:
The Presidential Search Committee will be provided with access to all resumes and nominations submitted through CarterBaldwin’s secure website. There will be a meeting with the members of the Presidential Search Committee to select candidates for first-round interviews. The committee may identify seven to nine candidates to schedule for interviews, and CarterBaldwin will facilitate.
May:
The search committee will interview the first-round candidates in person. After the first-round interviews, they will select three to five unranked candidates for recommendation to the USG Board of Regents for additional consideration. The search firm will then contact all the candidates who were not selected for semi-final consideration.
Board of Regents will hold the interviews with the three to five selected candidates. CarterBaldwin will do candidate referencing and background checking on those selected.
June:
There will be a public announcement listing the finalists for the presidency. There may be an offer extended to the selected candidate. The search firm will contact all the candidates who were not selected for final consideration. USG Chancellor and CarterBaldwin are responsible for the last part of this search.
The chairman of the Presidential Search Committee is Jim Syfan. Syfan is a member on the Board of Regents for the university system and is responsible for District 9.
“I’m looking forward to a new fresh energetic leader with vision who has a true love for the students, the ability to raise money to help students through the foundation, and has a love for the military.”- Jim Syfan
He explained that Jacobs let the Board of Regents for the university system know that she was ready to resign from her role as the university’s president. The USG Chancellor and Syfan had a discussion where they agree to create a committee to help with the process of selecting a suitable candidate to take the turn of UNG’s president. They also agree that Syfan would take the role and responsibilities of chairman for the committee. “We let them (UNG) know that we were making a committee and looking for members to be on the committee. We wanted to let the members be from the college’s community and surrounding areas,” he said.
He said it is humbling and a challenge for him to be part of the search committee and to be charged with the responsibility to find the new president for the university. Syfan elaborated, “It’s necessary that we have a search committee, because it’s the fair way to do, and we don’t want one person or group to pick the leadership that will directly affect the students and the committees.”
