Presidential Search Committee Moves to Interview Phase

The committee has narrowed the candidate pool and will host virtual interviews this month to select finalists

The Presidential Search Committee announced in a Dec. 22 update that they had narrowed the candidate pool after a comprehensive evaluation against the Presidential Leadership Profile.

The Committee finalized the profile following various listening sessions hosted by the executive search firm WittKieffer, which included a faculty, staff and student open forum.

These sessions encouraged members of the Santa Clara community to express the qualifications and qualities they hoped to see in the next president.

In the open forum held on Oct. 3, students communicated the need for a transparent leader who is attentive to on-campus issues. Some participants wished students or recent alumni were included on the search committee.

“The next president will bring decisiveness; discernment; a strong commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging; and exceptional leadership in mobilizing and operationalizing the path forward,” the profile states.

Chair of the Presidential Search Committee Matthew Carnes, S.J., said that these characteristics became the template for the way applications have been evaluated at each stage of the process. The coming interview round will be no different.

“Those community forums were incredibly important because they gave us the self-identified view of what the Santa Clara community was looking for and now we can try and match that as best as possible in the candidates that we are attracting,” Carnes said.

Hundreds of people expressed interest in the position after the profile was advertised widely to a national audience through the support of WittKieffer.

“By having such a broad opportunity, we’ve been able to attract diversity both inside academia and outside it and that's given us a really rich pool from which to look,” Carnes said.

The committee has since selected roughly a dozen candidates for further assessment and virtual interviews this month.

Although Carnes is hopeful that a decision will be announced within the next few months, the committee’s search will not conclude until they are truly satisfied with a candidate.

“Out of respect for the individuals and our own decision making process we want to leave some space to make sure that we can do it very well,” he said.