An interim president may take over the university after President Dan Mote's retirement takes effect Aug. 31, according to Donald Kettl, the public policy dean and chairman of the search committee tasked with finding Mote's replacement.
After Mote announced his retirement in February, Chancellor Brit Kirwan and the Board of Regents appointed a presidential search committee to interview candidates and compile a short list for Kirwan and the Regents to consider.
Kettl said that while his group was working "as quickly as we can," there is no guarantee there will be a permanent replacement by the time Mote leaves at the beginning of the fall semester.
Kirwan said he would appoint an interim president in the meantime, a situation that wouldn't be unprecedented at this university — an interim was briefly in charge after Kirwan himself stepped down as president here in 1998 before Mote's appointment.
Several faculty members around for the 1998 transition said they couldn't recall any problems with the system, and the University of Maryland, Baltimore, also had an interim president until July 1, after former president David A. Ramsay stepped down in March.
The presidential transition comes at a time of administrative upheaval in College Park: Vice President for Research Mel Bernstein left July 1 to take a position at Northeastern University and Athletics Director Debbie Yow announced last week that she is leaving for N.C. State.
Bernstein's and Yow's positions both come with a chair in the president's cabinet and are now staffed by interims while officials wait for a permanent president to appoint their replacements.
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