AU panel starts search for new provost

Auburn University President Jay Gogue has named a nine-member committee chaired by College of Sciences and Mathematics Dean Stewart Schneller to conduct the search for a new AU provost and vice president for academic affairs.
The provost will succeed John Heilman, who has announced his retirement, effective at the end of 2008. In its first meeting April 11, the panel received a charge from Gogue to conduct a wide search, open to any qualified applicant, to find the best person to serve as Auburn’s chief academic officer.

Schneller said the committee will identify and work with a search firm in pursuit of that goal. Gogue said he would like to have the new provost in place in January.

The pace of the search will accelerate during the summer, with the goal of bringing candidates to campus in September or October, Schneller said.

In addition to Schneller, the search committee includes Terry Byrd, Bray Professor in the Department of Management, College of Business; David Cicci, immediate past chair of the University Senate and a professor in Aerospace Engineering, Samuel Ginn College of Engineering; Patricia Duffy, Alumni Professor, Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, College of Agriculture; Maria Folmar, former chair of the Administrative and Professional Assembly and outreach programs administrator, Center for Governmental Services; Lauren Hayes, president of the Student Government Association; Chris Newland, Alumni Professor, Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts; Mary Rudisill, head of the Department of Kinesiology, College of Education; and Jack Miller of the AU Board of Trustees.