Search Committee for Next President of Andrews University Will Interview Five Candidates

December 22, 2015:    The presidential search committee for Andrews University has selected five candidates to be interviewed, Dr. Benjamin Schoun, who is chairman of the committee, has reported to the faculty and staff. Reference checks will be completed prior to the interviews and the interviews will be held off campus in order to maintain confidentiality, he wrote.

The committee met on November 23 to review the names that have been suggested from many sources, including faculty, alumni and board members. A number of the candidates declined to be interviewed for a variety of reasons mostly related to personal decisions to stay in their current positions.

The committee developed a set of 15 questions to use in the interviews. There are two questions on each of seven topics; Adventist faith commitments, strategic vision for the university, academic competence, multicultural diversity commitments, the ambassador role for the university, leadership style, and personal characteristics of courage, compassion and communication. In addition there will be on capstone question.

The candidate recommended by the search committee will be officially appointed by the governing board of the university and will take office next year after the retirement of Dr. Niels-Erik Andreasen. Because the university is a worldwide institution the appointment will also require the consent of the denomination’s General Conference (GC) leadership.

Schoun has served as chairman of the board for the university and a general vice president of the GC. He is in the process of retiring from those roles.