4 Finalists Selected in Search for TSU President

The search advisory committee for a new president of Tennessee State University narrowed the candidate pool to four finalists today.

They are: • Ainsley Carry, vice president for Student Affairs at Auburn University;• Glenda Glover, dean of the College of Business at Jackson State University;• Bennie Harris, vice president for Development and Alumni Relations at Lipscomb University; and• Candace Campbell Jackson, vice president and chief of staff at The University of Akron.

Each will visit the TSU campus during the week of Oct. 29 – Nov. 1 to meet with a variety of university constituent groups, including faculty and staff, students, alumni and the community.

“The search committee is pleased to recommend an excellent group of candidates for consideration,” said Greg Duckett, vice chairman of the Tennessee Board of Regents and search committee chair. “We look forward to learning more about each of them and giving them an opportunity to meet with TSU family and friends.”

A series of campus forums will take place at the Floyd-Payne Campus Center. Open receptions for community members, alumni and friends of the university will be scheduled each evening. A detailed schedule for each finalist will be posted at www.tbr.edu and www.tnstate.edu as soon as they are available. The campus forums will be streamed live via a link available on the websites as well.

The finalists were screened and selected by the committee from 86 applicants from around the country. Eleven applicants were invited to meet with the committee, and nine were interviewed. The finalists were then selected from that group. The finalists’ resumes are available on the presidential search websites.

The search committee’s charge is to interview and identify the finalists for the position of president. Committee members will also participate in the campus meetings and gather feedback from constituents. Tennessee Board of Regents Chancellor John Morgan will gather feedback from committee members and make the final selection for recommendation to the Board for approval within a few weeks after the campus visits.

TSU, Tennessee’s only public HBCU (historically black colleges and universities), is a doctoral/research intensive institution located in Nashville. It recently earned a Top 20 ranking for HBCUs by U.S.News & World Report and has been listed as one of the Top HBCUs in the United States by Black Enterprise magazine. Washington Monthly named TSU as one of the nation’s top universities in its 2011 College Rankings because of its success in educating and graduating academically talented, low-income students who become service-oriented leaders in their professions and communities.

The TBR is the nation’s sixth largest higher education system, governing 46 post-secondary educational institutions. The TBR system includes six universities, 13 community colleges and 27 technology centers, providing programs across the state to more than 200,000 students.

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