Roane State Presidential Search Committee Outlines Process, Schedule

The presidential search advisory committee for Roane State Community College met today to outline the search process and agree on a schedule for future meetings.

The committee will meet next on Aug. 3, the cut-off date for applications and nominations to be received. That meeting and any other meetings where individual applicants or candidates are identified will be closed to the public in order to comply with a new state law. The law provides that identities of candidates for chief executive officer of a Tennessee public higher education institution remain confidential unless the candidate is selected as a finalist for the position.

The search committee’s charge is to identify three to five finalists who will visit the college for interviews. After collecting feedback from committee members, Tennessee Board of Regents Chancellor John Morgan will then make a final selection for submission to the TBR for approval. The finalists are expected to be selected at the search advisory committee’s closed meeting scheduled for Aug. 15. The finalists will be announced to the public after the meeting.

The Roane State committee is the first to begin a presidential search process since the state law requiring applicant confidentiality was enacted. The first meeting of the committee was open to the public, as will search committee interviews with the finalists. The finalists will be invited to the college to meet with campus and community constituent groups in open forums. All of the campus forums will be streamed live through a link available on the Web. A detailed schedule of the visits will be announced later. More information on the presidential search process, including the criteria for selection, can be found at www.tbr.edu under the “Quick Links” section.

Current Roane State President Gary Goff will retire in October after seven years as the college’s leader. Roane State is a two-year college providing transfer curricula, career-preparation programs and continuing education. Founded in 1971, the college has campuses in Crossville, Harriman, Huntsville, Jamestown, Knoxville, LaFollette, Lenoir City, Oak Ridge and Wartburg.

The TBR is the nation’s sixth largest higher education system, governing 46 post-secondary educational institutions. The TBR system includes six universities, 13 two-year colleges (including Roane State) and 27 technology centers, providing programs in 90 of Tennessee’s 95 counties to more than 200,000 students.