UNCW announced the search committee for the new chancellor Friday. The committee consists of members of the Board of Trustees (BOT), faculty and staff, students, alumni and community members.

The representatives for the BOT include Chair Wendy Murphy, Vice-chair Terry Coffey, Wilma Daniels, Sandy McNeill, secretary for the BOT Linda Pearce, Michael Shivar and Vice-chair and chair-elect George Teague.

The student representative is SGA President Matt Victory.

The faculty representatives are Bruce McKinney, chair of the Faculty Senate; Tony Puente, psychology faculty member; Susan Ivancevich, accountancy and business law faculty member and Paul Hosier, former provost.

Also included are Nancy Jones, former chair of the Staff Senate; Jason Wheeler, former chair of the Alumni Association; Estell Lee Harrelson, former board member/chair; and Charles Evans, former BOT chair.

“This is a laborious task,” said Wendy Murphy, BOT and search committee chair. “The decisions that we make will affect the next phase and the future of UNCW. It will also affect the economy of South Eastern North Carolina, as we provide many positions and services to the public.”

Murphy said that although the budget is always a concern and searching for a new chancellor is an expensive process, the search committee plans to cut down costs by holding more than one meeting a day and being efficient.

The search committee has decided to utilize a search firm to find candidates for the chancellor position. The committee will divide into two sub-committees; one will be in charge of selecting the search firm and the other will be in charge writing the leadership statement, as well as organizing the public forums. Tentative dates for the public forums are Nov. 18, Nov. 23 and Dec. 1.

A website is also in the works, which will be updated with information about the search for a chancellor. The search committee will provide the information for the website, and they will decide when it will launch.

By December, the search committee will begin advertising for the position and inviting applications and nominations for the next chancellor. By March, the field will be narrowed down to three to five semi-finalists. The search committee will then recommend the final three finalists to UNCW’s BOT, who will then recommend the finalists to the UNC Board of Governors’ President Tom Ross. President Ross will recommend his pick for chancellor to the Board of Governors, and by July, the new UNCW chancellor will begin work.