Next week members of the UVI community will have their first look at candidates who are vying for the University's top job. Two finalists will visit the UVI campuses on St. Thomas and St. Croix to meet with faculty, staff, students, alumni and the general community on January 27, 28 and 29, 2009.
The finalists were selected after an extensive, national search process by a search committee which was appointed by the UVI Board of Trustees. The Committee is co-chaired by UVI Board Members Attorney Henry Smock and Dr. Wesley Williams. The other members of the Committee are: Mr. Alexander Moorhead, chairman of the UVI Board of Trustees; Mr. Roy Jackson, Ms. Juanita Woods, and Dr. Auguste Rimpel, Jr., who are UVI Board members; Dr. Ededet Iniama, a UVI Professor and former Board member; Mr. Dwayne Petersen, a UVI Student and former Board Member; Ms. Deana Rogers, UVI alumna and Board Member; Attorney Debra Watlington, a former UVI Board member and member of the VI Board of Education; Ms. Miriam Osborne-Elliott, Associate Campus Administrator for Student Affairs (St. Croix Campus), and Mr. Edward Thomas, member of the UVI Foundation, as well as Mr. Daryl Brow, Ms. Trudi Prior and Mr. Donald Sussman, community representatives from the islands of St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John respectively. Mr. Sussman is also a Board member.
The Board of Trustees retained the services of Isaacson Miller, a national executive search firm, to assist the Search Committee in recruiting and screening candidates for the position. The search process included the review of over 70 applications received in response to local and national advertisements as well as the search firm's contact with over 300 leaders in higher education on the U.S. mainland and the Caribbean.
"We are proud of the work that has been done by the Presidential Search Committee," Search Committee Co-Chairman Dr. Wesley Williams said. "We look forward to introducing the candidates to the University and the community." UVI is searching for a president to succeed Dr. LaVerne Ragster, who steps down on June 30, 2009 after seven years at the helm.
During their visits, each candidate will meet with several campus groups and participate in open forums over the course of a day on each campus. The general community is invited to join campus constituencies in open forums at 2:00 p.m. on the day of each candidate's visit; and alumni are invited to meet the candidates at 3:15 p.m. These forums will be held on the St. Thomas Campus in the conference room on the first floor of the Administration and Conference Center on January 27th and 28th and on the St. Croix Campus in the northwest wing of the Great Hall on January 28th and 29th.
The first candidate to visit UVI will be Dr. Calvin D. Jamison, on St. Thomas on January 27th and on St. Croix on January 28th.
Dr.
Jamison is presently the Vice President for Business Affairs at the
University of Texas at Dallas, and is a Clinical Professor in the
School of Economic, Political, and Policy Sciences. He has over 25
years of experience in higher education, corporate America, and
local government. Prior to assuming his current position, he was
the Senior Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer at
Hampton University. He has also served as Assistant to the
President at Virginia Tech, and held faculty and administrative
positions at Virginia Commonwealth University. Dr. Jamison is the
former CEO/City Manager of the City of Richmond Virginia, where he
managed a workforce of 4500 and a budget of over $1.2 billion. He
was also the former Director of Human Resource Development for the
Ethyl Corporation, a Fortune 1000 company headquartered in
Richmond, Virginia. Dr. Jamison holds B.S., M.A. and Ed.D degrees
from Virginia Tech.
On January 28th and 29th, on St. Thomas and St. Croix respectively, UVI will welcome the second finalist, Dr. David Hall.
Dr.
Hall is currently a Professor of Law at Northeastern University
School of Law and has had a distinguished career as an
administrator in the law school and the University. He was
appointed Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at
Northeastern University in 1998 and served in that capacity until
2002. During that time, he oversaw significant growth in the
University's external research funding, retention rate, diversity
and the overall academic standing. Before being appointed as
Provost, he was Dean of the Law School at Northeastern where he
spearheaded efforts with experiential learning and social justice.
Dr. Hall has also served as Associate Dean of Academic Affairs for
the School of Law and was a tenured professor at the law schools of
the University of Mississippi and the University of Oklahoma.
Before entering academia, Dr. Hall practiced with the Federal Trade
Commission in Chicago and played professional basketball in
Italy.
Dr. Hall holds both a doctorate of juridical science and LL.M. degree from Harvard Law School, a J.D. and M.A. from the University of Oklahoma and a B.A. from Kansas State University.
The UVI Board of Trustees will meet on January 30th and 31st to interview the two candidates. It is expected that the Board of Trustees will name President Ragster's successor in early February.