Sections

2 students to serve on search committee

The University has started another search -- this time for two students who will help find the next president.

An undergraduate and a graduate student will be selected to serve on the 12-member search advisory committee.

Based on recommendations of Provost J. Bernard Machen, the University Board of Regents will appoint a committee in February.

While Machen said there are not any specific qualities he thinks are essential in the student representative, he said it is important to have a student who will still be on campus next fall.

Machen said he plans to contact many student organizations, mostly through e-mail, to find the student representative candidates.

The committee will also include seven faculty members, two staff members and one University alum.

The advisory committee, which will meet in closed sessions, hopes to secure candidate confidentiality, Machen said.

The committee will meet though September, when it is scheduled to give the regents a list of all names to consider, along with at least five recommended candidates. All the candidates' names will then be made public.

Michigan Student Assembly President Flint Wainess said students have already contacted him to express interest in serving on the committee.

Wainess said he thinks more students should be involved.

"I would have liked a few more students on the advisory committee," he said. "But I think the two that do serve will be influential."