The University of Oregon's business school on Dec. 1, 2019.
Kaylee Domzalski / OPB
The University of Oregon is starting the process to find its next leader in a trend of shifting higher education leadership across the state.
Former UO President Michael Schill announced last month his departure from the school to lead Northwestern University. UO Provost and Senior Vice President Patrick Phillips is currently serving as the university’s president in the interim.
The UO Board of Trustees met Friday afternoon to discuss the initial steps in the presidential search process. The board also officially granted its chair, Ginevra Ralph, the authority to manage the search process and establish a Presidential Search Committee. That committee will eventually be made up of 22 members including trustees, faculty, administrators, students and others — including the “president of another public university in Oregon.”
“We will be announcing search committee members in the next month or so,” Ralph said Friday.
The board has set a Nov. 1 deadline to meet a multitude of goals to begin the search process, such as: creating the search committee, selecting a search firm and announcing public forums to gather community input.
The presidential search committee will work with the search firm to establish a timeline for the process.
Schill’s resignation continues a period of turnover at Oregon’s public universities.
The state’s largest university, Oregon State, hired Jayathi Murthy as president in June after its last permanent leader resigned amid controversy. Murthy began her tenure earlier this month.
Portland State University president, Stephen Percy, announced he was retiring at the end of the upcoming academic year. And Eastern Oregon University’s president Tom Insko recently announced his resignation to take a job in the timber industry.