2theadvocate.com March 28, 2011 Southern has list of 10 for chancellor job Posted by Jordan Blum The top 10 applicants for the Southern University chancellor job include the "hip-hop prez," a former LSU administrator and the president of Savannah State University in Georgia. Chicago-based DHR International search firm submitted the 10 most qualified candidates - as gauged by the firm out of 24 official applicants - to Southern's chancellor search committee on Monday. The committee will meet again on April 5 to decide which of the applicants to invite to campus for formal interviews. The stated goal is to select a new chancellor by the end of April. "These are the top of the top," said DHR Executive Vice President Robert Clayton. "This is not a perfect science. Humans are not perfect. But humans can be wonderful, and these are some wonderful candidates." Clayton spoke glowingly of rising "superstar" applicants like Walter Kimbrough - affectionately known as the "hip-hop prez" - as president of small Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Ark., and of Gregory Vincent, the University of Texas vice president for diversity and community engagement. Vincent previously was the LSU vice provost for academic affairs and campus diversity. "If you took a vote of the student body, they would say search over," Clayton said of Kimbrough. "He's the No. 1 superstar, young president in the country." Kimbrough has embraced the nickname that was given to him by local media in Arkansas. Clayton also spoke highly of other sitting or former college presidents in the running, such as: - Tony Atwater, former president of Indiana University of Pennsylvania. - George Bradley, president of Paine College In Augusta, Ga. - Robert Hampton, former president of York College, City University of New York. - Melvin Johnson, former president of Tennessee State College. - Earl Yarbrough, president of Savannah State University. - Belinda Childress Anderson, former president of Virginia Union University. - Robert Jennings, former president of Alabama A&M University. Jennings was a finalist last year for the Southern University System presidency that went to Ronald Mason Jr. and Anderson was a semifinalist before she opted to withdraw. The 10th applicant is James Llorens, the former Southern dean of graduate studies and the current assistant chief administrative officer to Mayor Kip Holden. Clayton said he failed to convince Southern Dean of Nursing Janet Rami and Southern University at Shreveport Chancellor Ray Belton to apply. Llorens and Belton were among the finalists for the chancellor job in 2008 that went to Kofi Lomotey. But Lomotey resigned under pressure in November at the end of a job review by Mason - effective June 30 - which jumpstarted the current search. Other applicants who did not make the top 10 included: Southern physics chairman Diola Bagayoko, Southern history professor Eva Baham, Grambling State University Vice President Paul Bryant, Grambling College of Business Dean Carl Wright, Tuskegee University Provost Tony Williams, Rosemont College Provost Bill Harvey and Victor Mbarika, director of Southern's International Center for Information Technology and Development. Search committee member Wade Shows said he may want to give more consideration to more of those applicants outside of the top 10 in order to cast a wide net. Clayton said he will also continue to recruit more top people to apply, noting that Mason did not apply last year until after Southern had narrowed its list to five president candidates. The search committee members have the rest of the week to score the 10 candidates on a series of 14 criteria, such as "demonstrated fundraising skills" and "turnaround experience." Then they will decide who to bring to campus for interviews. Some search committee members expressed concern about only one female making the top 10. Clayton said extra efforts were made to recruit top women, but that it was discouraging that only three of the 17 search committee members are women. Eventually, the search committee will recommend its top three choices to Mason, who will then submit his final choice to the Southern Board of Supervisors. SANDRA M. PHOENIX Program Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 404.592.4820 Skype:sandra.phoenix1 1438 West Peachtree Street NW Suite 200 Atlanta, GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (Lyrasis) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children.