Presidential Search update – April 21, 2017

Presidential Search Committee chair Wesley Elingburg P'11 provides details on the status of Elon's search for the university's ninth president.  

Dear members of the Elon community,

I write with an update from Elon’s Presidential Search Committee on the progress of our work. I’m pleased to report that we are well-positioned for the next phase of the search in which we will receive applications, actively recruit outstanding individuals and evaluate and narrow the list of candidates. There is no doubt we will receive applications from many talented candidates, but feedback from every Elon constituency has made it clear that our most essential task will be to identify candidates who understand, value and support Elon’s unique culture.

Following a Search Committee meeting on April 6, we have finalized the position prospectus, which is now posted on the Presidential Search website: www.elon.edu/presidentialsearch. I want to thank the many members of the campus community who provided input via our survey and forums. We also received a great deal of thoughtful input from Elon’s Parents Council, the Elon Alumni Board and the Young Alumni Council during their spring meetings on March 31-April 1. The contributions of the entire Elon community helped shape the prospectus, particularly the language summarizing Elon’s future opportunities and challenges as well as the desired qualifications and characteristics of top candidates.

We encourage the Elon community to continue recommending outstanding candidates for consideration. The power of the Elon professional network is an asset that we want to leverage. Please direct prospective candidates to the presidential search website, and don’t hesitate to reach out to a member of the Search Committee or our consulting firm, Storbeck/Pimentel & Associates (www.storbeckpimentel.com) to nominate a candidate. Nominations may be submitted directly to elonpresident@storbecksearch.com.

Over the next couple of months we will form a pool of excellent candidates and begin the process of conducting interviews. We will continue to keep our community updated on the search process and look for opportunities to gain further community input as much as possible. Community updates will appear on the presidential website.

I would like to close by sharing with you how impressed I am with the quality of our search committee members, their serious approach to this great responsibility and their commitment to represent the interests of the many stakeholders who care deeply about Elon. I have every confidence that we have assembled the right group of individuals who will ensure our success in making a recommendation for Elon’s ninth president to the Elon Board of Trustees.

Sincerely,

Wesley Elingburg P’11
Elon University Trustee

Chair, Presidential Search Committee