Search for new vice president for college advancement is underway

By: Michelle Anstett
Editor-in-chief

With Perry White’s announcement in October of 2006 that he was relinquishing the vice president of college advancement position in order to return to his former post in the music department, there has been a significant vacancy in the college’s administrative staff. As a result, Monmouth College began its search for a replacement late in November, with screenings and interviews of candidates beginning in the middle of January.

The vice president for college advancement, responsible for “creating a strategic master plan for enhancing and invigorating all elements in the advancement program and nurturing staff capabilities and experience,” according to the candidate prospectus posted on the Monmouth College website, is an integral position to the future growth of Monmouth College, both economically and in terms of relationship with alumni and the outside world.

Assisted by Judith Ward, senior consultant for the Academic Search company, the college posted advertisements on its website, the Academic Search website and in journals of higher learning in hopes of attracting candidates.

Ward, who received her bachelor of science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her master’s in political science from the University of British Columbia, joined the Academic Search team in 2004 after serving as a member of an independent consulting practice which assisted universities, nonprofit organizations and foundations. Prior to that position, she was executive associate director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Waisman Center, “one of 14 national centers established to gain further knowledge about human development and developmental disabilities,” as her biography on the company’s website states.

In addition to her other credentials, Ward also has significant experience with assisting colleges in finding senior executives, the category under which Monmouth College’s vice president for college advancement search falls, as well as presidents and chief executive officers, so she brings a great deal of experience to this crucial search for Monmouth.

The prospectus posted on the college website gives potential candidates a large amount of information about Monmouth College, the student body and the town of Monmouth, in addition to listing the requirements candidates must possess in order to be considered for the position. Some of these requirements include “demonstrated skills in strategic advancement leadership and management, with at least seven years of progressive experience in an educational or nonprofit institution”; “the ability to work collaboratively with colleagues and faculty on campus and effectively with diverse interests in the community” and “a creative, energetic individual with a strong work ethic, unassailable integrity, and [sic] good judgment, with the willingness to provide advice to senior leadership and accept direction from the President.” At the most basic level, a vice president of college advancement for Monmouth College must be able to oversee alumni relations, college publicity and fundraising.

Those viewing the advertisements were asked to submit their resumes, a letter of interest addressing the criteria outlined in the prospectus and a list of five professional references with telephones and e-mail addresses to the college’s Academic Search profile. Recommendations of potential candidates were also welcomed in the advertisement, hoping to attract those who could excel at the position.

However, Mauri Ditzler, Monmouth College president, stated the majority of the candidates do not come from reading the advertisements.

As a full-time search consultant, Ditzler said Ward spends much of her time calling various campuses in an effort to compile a list of potential candidates for when she is employed by a college to find a vice president. This list, from which Ward would “probably make several thousand contacts” when beginning the search for Monmouth’s vice president of college advancement, yielded a group of approximately 25 interested candidates.

These 25 candidates, who are in the middle of their careers at other institutions and do not want to make public the fact that they are searching for another job, are currently being screened by the search committee, and Ditzler stated there are “some very promising individuals in that pool.”

When it comes to looking for an ideal individual, he said the college “probably wants someone who’s doing very well at their current institution.” Most searches Monmouth College conducts are for professors, which can yield candidates simply by placing an advertisement in a higher education journal. These advertisements, read mainly by those soon to receive their Ph.D.s and out-of-work professors, are relatively effective in producing large numbers of candidates for one position. However, advertisements for a vice presidential position are ineffective in producing many candidates, as the ideal candidates for these positions already have prominent positions on campuses.

The committee, once it received the application materials for the 25 candidates suggested by Ward, reviewed all the materials and has begun to make some preliminary selections for interviews. Consisting of two faculty representatives, Michael Connell and Joseph Angotti, one executive member, Donald Gladfelter, one member from the advancement office, Lucy Thompson, one trustee, Bill Truebeck and Jayne Whiteside from the financial aid office, the committee will conduct several interviews with the select candidates.

Due to the highly sensitive nature of this search, as all the candidates currently have jobs with other colleges and universities and do not want to make it known they are searching elsewhere, the committee must contact all references under a confidentiality agreement. Candidates selected for the first round of interviews will be flown to a remote city, where the committee will gather for quick interviews, and the candidates will fly back out as soon as the interview is over.

The secrecy cannot be maintained forever, Ditzler said, as the committee will choose between one and four of the strongest candidates to campus for interviews here, but those would be the strongest candidates of the group. Once on campus, the secrecy of the candidates’ job searches is broken, as they are likely to see someone who will recognize them as an employee of another college, which can ruin their effectiveness at their current position.

While the search committee is still in some of the earlier stages of screening the candidates, Ditzler said he hopes to be able to make the announcement that Monmouth College has a new vice president of college advancement by the end of April, perhaps earlier.