Search for successor will mirror Mote selection

Twelve years ago, a group of university faculty, staff and students gathered in a hotel near Dulles International Airport. They met a state away from College Park to avoid attention from The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun and The Diamondback. There, in a conference room, they met a top official from the University of California, Berkeley, who had recently been passed over for that institution's presidency.

The official had an impressive resume — he had run the first $1 billion fundraising campaign in Berkeley's history. The university representatives peppered the official, who had never set foot on the College Park campus, with questions. He apparently gave good answers.

Not long after, Dan Mote was introduced as the eighth president of the University of Maryland.

More than a decade later, things will likely follow the same pattern when the university selects its next president, interviews with members of the committee that selected Mote and members of the committee charged with finding his successor revealed.

The new committee, like the old one, is chaired by the dean of the university's public policy school. Like the old one, it was formed after a president resigned in the winter and was expected to find a replacement by the beginning of the fall semester. And like the old one, it aims to conduct a top-secret nationwide search for a strong leader with fundraising skills who can connect with the university.

The new committee, chaired by Public Policy Dean Don Kettl, met for the first time yesterday. One of the committee's first tasks: create a job description. That process, according to University Systemof Maryland Chancellor Brit Kirwan, would be similar to the last time around.

"We're going to be looking for more or less the same kind of leader we were when Dan Mote came because the goals and aspirations of the university haven't changed," he said.

The old committee was looking for a successful academic with strong fundraising skills, a "dynamic vision" and a personality that would connect with students, alumni and donors, said Center for Financial Policy Director Lemma Senbet, who served on the old committee.

The previous committee held public forums to gather input from the university community, and committee members also held meetings with their constituents, members said.

"The committee really appreciated input, but it wasn't always particularly useful, which is understandable because we all have different levels of experience," biology professor Elisabeth Gantt said. Still, the committee tried to incorporate outside input when possible, committee members said.

Kettl said this year's committee would announce the first of its listening sessions to gather input from the university community as early as next week, and the first of the sessions would take place soon after spring break.

"The next stage is the committee is going to spend as much time listening to members of the campus community as we can," Kettl said.

Susan Schwab, who was public policy dean when she led the committee that found Mote, couldn't be reached for comment.

Members of Schwab's committee found candidates in two ways: through advertisements, most notably one in The Chronicle of Higher Education, which is read by administrators across the United States, and by networking with people on and off the campus. Kettl said the current committee would use similar strategies this time around and that it would also solicit nominations through e-mail and a website.

The old committee's ad brought in hundreds of applicants running the gamut of quality, committee members said. For example, one applicant was in charge of school cafeterias, said University Senate Parliamentarian and history professor Marvin Breslow, another member of the old committee.

"We got hundreds of applicants, and they came from government circles, private — even corporations, even academia, even some important sitting presidents," Senbet said.

The committee winnowed the field in a series of secret-ballot votes, she said, until there were about 10 applicants left. In multi-hour interviews held off the campus, committee members interviewed the final candidates, finally submitting a handful of names to the Board of Regents — a 17-member panel of gubernatorial appointees that oversees the university system — for final approval, Senbet said.

Throughout the process, the committee maintained strict confidentiality, members said.

"Say somebody is a college president somewhere else or a college provost somewhere else, and word gets out that they're looking elsewhere — gee, how well does that sit with their Board of Regents?" Breslow asked.

cox@umdbk.com