The committee intends to follow the advice and presidential job description given to them by the University Board of Regents earlier this year. As Regent Philip Power (D-Ann Arbor) told them, "We are trying and are going to pick just the right person at just the right time."
The group, which was selected by the regents, will work to recruit candidates and conduct preliminary interviews to try to find the "unusual suspect" that the board has indicated they want.
The committee is part of the regents' plan to keep the names of all candidates secret until the final stages of the search, scheduled for around October. Provost J. Bernard Machen recommended the committee members to the board.
The committee consists of seven faculty members, two students, two staff members and one alum. Law School Dean Jeffrey Lehman will serve as the committee's chair.
"It is with a sense of humility, responsibility and gratitude that we are undertaking this role for you," Lehman told the board in March.
The advisory committee will have no contact with the board until its scheduled meeting in September or October when the committee will present the results of its search.
"It is a preparatory step to the ultimate selection of the president," said Regent Shirley McFee (R-Battle Creek), a co-chair of the presidential search committee. "We hope that you will conduct a vigorous search for candidates."
The committee was formed with the intent of complying with the Open Meetings Act while still providing some candidate confidentiality. According to state law, all regular meetings of the Board of Regents must be conducted in public.
Because the committee's task is designated as "purely advisory," it is not required to meet in public.
When the list of candidates is presented to the regents, all names that were considered will be made public. In addition, the committee will not eliminate candidates, but will provide a list of five unranked individuals who they consider the top choices.
Members of the board have said this will help protect some candidate confidentiality.
McFee defended the closed search process, saying it would help protect the candidates' reputations at their current job.
"Just because a person's name is on the list doesn't mean that they were ever considered," McFee said. "It does not mean they have any interest in pursuing it at all."
But McFee also cautioned the advisory committee about keeping strict confidentiality.
"Leaks can occur through casual conversation or interaction with a close friend, spouse," McFee said.
LSA junior Jennifer Norris, the undergraduate student of the group, said she is working closely with graduate student Doneka Scott to get the opinions of students.
"We have been going around to different students and organizations," Norris said last week.
Norris also said she has been eating in all the dorms in order to talk to a variety of students -- not just identified student leaders. She said she has already met with about 30 to 50 students. The advisory committee has been meeting about every two weeks, she added.
Norris said she is working with Scott to develop other means to gauge student input. She hopes to set up a table at the Michigan Union so they can be accessible to many students. The two students might also organize an e-mail group so students can send them more input.
While the committee members talk to their respective constituencies, they also will meet in private -- along with hired search consultant Malcolm MacKay -- to conduct most of the legwork for the regents.
MacKay, managing director of the New York-based consulting firm Russell Reynolds Inc., was hired earlier this year to help with the search. The University is paying him at least $87,000.
The board has stressed repeatedly that they still have the final word on whom is elected president.
"Any name at all can be considered and will be considered, by the board," said Regent Laurence Deitch (D-Bloomfield Hills).