The search for FGCU President Wilson Bradshaw’s replacement will take longer than expected — the Presidential Search Advisory Committee will be opening the search back up after reviewing over a hundred candidates.
Board of Trustees Chair Dudley Goodlette sent an email to all students, faculty and staff on Monday, Nov. 21 in regards to the results of his recent trip to Tallahassee.
“I was already scheduled to be in Tallahassee today, and while there met with Chancellor Marshall Criser to discuss our presidential search, and whether the ‘exceptional circumstances’ provision in the Board of Governors’ Regulation on Presidential Search and Selection applies to the PSAC’s Friday action to advance only two candidates to the BOT,” Goodlette wrote in the email.
Chancellor Criser told Goodlette that this situation does not apply, and that the committee will need to advance more than two candidates to the BOT.
“We look forward to receiving a full complement of candidates through the good work of the Presidential Search Advisory Committee and our executive search firm Witt/Kieffer,” Goodlette said in the email.
PSAC Chair Ken Smith also sent an email to students, faculty and staff on Monday, Nov. 21 in regards to the BOG’s decision.
In the email, Smith said that he had spoken to Witt/Kieffer representative Lucy Leske and  told her that the new deadline for best consideration is Tuesday, Jan. 31 2017 for candidate applications.
“Witt/Kieffer will recruit additional candidates for the committee’s consideration, and accordingly we will revise our schedule to accommodate this extension for an expanded pool,” Smith said in the email.
According to Smith’s email, the committee’s new goal is to add one or more qualified candidates in addition to Daniel Heimmermann and Ken Harmon, who were chosen to be brought forward to the BOT during the second day of on-campus interviews on Friday, Nov. 18.
“I encourage everyone to remain engaged in this very important process of selecting FGCU’s next president,” Smith said in the email.