The Presidential Search Committee announced Lynne Murray of Gallaudet University will be the first university presidential candidate to visit Baker’s campus. Murray currently serves as the vice president of development, alumni & international relations for Gallaudet. She is scheduled to meet with various university constituencies on Monday and Tuesday.

The Presidential Search Committee announced Tuesday it has identified three final candidates for the 29th presidency of Baker University.

Although the committee will release the candidates’ names on a rolling basis, it did announce the finalists are scheduled to visit campus separately on Nov. 4-5, 7-8 and 11-12.

In a campus-wide email, Hoot Gibson, chair of the Presidential Search Committee, addressed the importance of these meetings.

“The purpose of the campus visits is two-fold,” Gibson wrote. “First, they will enable us to know the candidates more fully. Second, and perhaps more importantly, the visits will allow us to acquaint the candidates further with Baker University, its many distinctive features and its people.“

During these visitations, candidates will meet with representatives from university constituencies and speak at an open forum. Following these gatherings, those in attendance can provide feedback through the website, surverymonkey.com.<em>surverymonkey.com.</em> surverymonkey.com.

In an interview in early October, Gibson told the Baker Orange the committee was pleased by the quality and quantity of candidates who applied.

“We had a very large number of candidates apply for the job,” Gibson said. “We were very pleasantly surprised by the large number. We were also very pleasantly surprised at the depth of the pool. This was an extremely well qualified, well round group…”

As addressed in the presidential search prospectus, the next university president is expected to “lead the discernment and articulation of goals that are both inspiring and achievable while also building the spirit and will needed to realize them.”

The agenda items for the 29th president include: 1) sustaining the university’s trajectory, 2) supporting enrollment management efforts, 3) enhancing institutional advancement, 4) maintaining financial equilibrium, 5) expanding academic offerings, 6) reinforcing the university’s strong sense of community and 7) representing and promoting the university.

The Baker community can address these goals or any other concerns on the first day of each visit. Faculty members are invited to talk with each candidate in an open meeting from 3-3:45 p.m. on Nov. 4, 7 and 11 in the Collins House. Members of the campus community are then invited to an open forum on these dates from 4-5 p.m.

The committee will then take feedback from these meetings to narrow down the search to one final candidate. Gibson said the target date to announce the next president is Dec. 1.

“I think I can speak on behalf of the committee, we’re very excited about the prospects of brining in another great president to Baker University,” Gibson said.