T hings are moving apace as the search for a new chancellor at UAPB continues.
In June, UA System President Donald Bobbitt named UAPB’s Andrea Stewart as interim chancellor in the wake of the resignation of Laurence B. Alexander as chancellor at the university. Alexander took the top job at the University of Michigan’s Flint campus after serving as UAPB chancellor for 11 years.
Now, Bobbitt and the UA Board of Directors have named Perry Stuckey as the chairman of a search committee that will be tasked with finding a suitable replacement.
Perry is the former senior vice president of Eastman Chemical Co. And it’s fitting that he heads up this team, given that he got his start at UAPB with a bachelor’s degree. He retired as the director of human resources at Eastman and is now president of his own company, Transformational Advisory Group.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“I am humbled and honored to serve on this important advisory committee and look forward to working with this experienced team of committee members … to help find the best chancellor to continue the track record of excellence for UAPB, our region and state,” Stuckey said.
Stuckey will guide a who’s who list of search committee members, including leaders in education and industry, all with personal or professional exposure to UAPB. That is encouraging, given that these people distinctly understand the challenges and goals that the university in Pine Bluff has.
No time frame was given, but Bobbitt said the group would begin advertising the position in the near future and that multiple finalists will be brought to the campus for a look-see.
“The diversity of the committee members will bring a variety of voices to this search,” Bobbitt said, “enabling us to identify a short list of exceptional finalists for the campus committee to consider,” with the finalists also available to other groups both on and off the campus.
In the meantime, the university is in good hands with Dr. Stewart, who has been at the school since 1988.
The chancellor’s job is not an easy one. The right person has to balance many agenda items, both from outside and within the gates of the campus. Alexander made significant headway in moving the university forward. The job for the committee is to find someone as motivated to excellence as he was, someone who will take the momentum that he created and keep it going. That’s a tall order, but again, this group is blue chip, and we have every confidence they will bring this off in stellar fashion.