On behalf of the Presidential Search Committee (PSC), the Board of Regents is sharing an update with the Memorial University community on the committee’s activities in February.

The PSC is responsible for the search for Memorial University’s next president and vice-chancellor. The committee includes faculty, students, regents, staff and community representatives.

The committee met a number of times in February and has advanced the search to the stage where it has agreed upon a list of candidates who will be invited to a first round of interviews.

Advertising and direct outreach to potential candidates continued throughout February and the committee received additional applications for their consideration during that period and will continue to be open to new applications.

In addition, the PSC has received training on inclusive hiring practices and unconscious bias to support them as they move to the interview stage of the presidential search.

“February was an intensive month for the search committee and we have made great progress,” said Justin Ladha, chair of the Board of Regents. “We are pleased with the level of interest and the quality of the candidates who have expressed a desire to work with the Memorial University community. Work continues on schedule and we look forward to talking with candidates in the first round of interviews in the coming weeks.”

Hybrid search update

On Oct. 30, the PSC established that it would conduct a hybrid search to allow key stakeholders of the Memorial community to interact with the short-listed candidates and provide feedback to the PSC.

The stakeholder groups include elected members of Senate (including students); the Board of Regents (including students); students (including representatives from those elected to the student unions and from the general student population); and both unionized and non-unionized employees. The PSC is ensuring that group members will include representation from all of Memorial’s campuses.

To date, the PSC has received information on the members of four of the five stakeholder groups identified for the final phase and approved the mechanism by which the hybrid group for the general student population will be selected. That process is underway through the Office of the Registrar and is going well.

Further updates will be provided as the work of the PSC continues.