2008 Woodie Awards
District hires search firm for chancellor
North Carolina-based Gold Hill is chosen to find new chancellor
By Kristina Lindberg
Last update: 5/17/06 at 8:20 AM CST
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The Alamo Community College District board of trustees unanimously approved to hiring Gold Hill Associates, Community College Presidential Search Services, as a search firm for a chancellor during a special board meeting March 13.
They met with two representatives of the North Carolina-based firm during a special meeting Tuesday.
The representatives are Dr. Bob Barringer and Dr. J. Parker Chesson, Jr., former acting chancellors of this district.
Barringer was acting chancellor here 25 years ago and Chesson was acting chancellor in 2002.
The firm consists of five retired college presidents, Barringer said in an interview Tuesday.
Finding appropriate candidates usually takes four to six months, he added.
The firm has completed searches for 75 colleges, including a chancellor search and four president searches for the Houston Community College District and other ones at colleges in the state.
Barringer said the firm will be meeting with trustees to establish criteria to find a new chancellor.
"We'll be talking with a lot of people, including students," he said, adding the firm has to rely on the district and the colleges to find students, college and community members.
The firm will return in May to speak to them.
The district will establish a committee to review and interview possible candidates.
Representatives from the board, the colleges and the community will be on the committee.
Because the process will be confidential, the district is not planning forums for the public to meet candidates, District 6 trustee Gene Sprague said Wednesday.
Barringer said the firm will handle candidates with confidentiality because some candidates do not wish to tell their employers that they are applying for a position elsewhere.
Sprague, who was chairman of the board in 2002, said he had good experiences with Barringer. The board was in a crisis at that time and was looking for a chancellor.
"I called him and said I had an absolute ludicrous request," Sprague said, recalling his conversation about finding a chancellor in a short time period. "I sort of expected to be laughed at, but he (Barringer) said 'I have a couple of names.'"
That time, at no charge, Barringer found Chesson to be the new interim chancellor, Sprague said.
The college received two other proposals from Isaacson Miller of Boston and Allen Austin of Houston after sending out a request for proposal.
Deadline for proposals was March 7.
Pay for the search firm will be negotiated, trustees said Tuesday night.
The last search firm that conducted the search for former Chancellor Dr. J. Terence Kelly was Isaacson Miller. It was paid $75,000 plus $4,500 in expenses.
Kelly resigned Jan. 31, citing slow recovery after a stroke April 15 as the reason.
Trustees said March 13 Gold Hill Associates seem to have a good track record of finding people in the community college area.
Some said the other two search firms that sent in proposals had limited experience with community colleges.
District 9 trustee James A. Rindfuss said it is important that a search firm should not limit the search to candidates from community colleges but should expand to businesses and universities.
"What I do recognize is that we are exposed to a much smaller pool of candidates," Rindfuss said about choosing Gold Hill Associates, adding that he does not have anything against the firm.
Board Chairman Charles Conner said whoever is chosen, the board will sit down with a firm and tell them about the needs and wishes.
He added the employees of the firm know many important people in the industry.
"The person that we're going to hire is probably not looking for a job tonight," Conner said.
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