Search for Locatelli's replacement under way

By Liz O'Brien

Though University President Paul Locatelli, S.J., announced his resignation less than a month ago, the ball has already begun rolling in the process to find his successor.

The university's Board of Trustees is currently in the midst of determining who will comprise the search committee that will seek out and present candidates to take Locatelli's place, and the trustees hope to have the field narrowed down to a select few within the next two months, said Bob Finocchio, vice chair of the Board of Trustees.

"If things go well, we want to try to start identifying candidates and talking to candidates before the end of the academic year," said Finocchio, who was also recently appointed head of the search committee.

University bylaws state that the president must be a Jesuit, and in the weeks immediately following Locatelli's announcement, letters announcing the open position were sent out to Jesuit institutions across the country, said Jim Briggs, executive assistant to the president.

In the weeks that those letters circulate, the board will be forming the search committee, comprised of six trustees, two university staff members, two faculty members and one or two Jesuits. Finocchio said the board anticipates that the committee members will be finalized by the end of this week.

The next step in the process is to identify members of the Jesuit community with appropriate experience in higher education, said Finocchio.

Qualifications include experience with managing an institution with a large endowment and being able to work with diverse groups of faculty, staff and students.

"We're looking for somebody who is comfortable with the mission and identity of Santa Clara and wants to carry that on," Finocchio said, adding there are no specific candidates in mind yet.

Though Finocchio declined to specify if any members of the Santa Clara Jesuit community will be considered, he said that the search is currently wide open and Santa Clara's Jesuits will not be excluded. Most likely to succeed Locatelli are those with administrative experience at other universities.

"The Board of Trustees will go after those they believe most qualified, and that could include Jesuits here, but also sitting presidents," said Sonny Manuel, S.J., rector of the Jesuit community and board member. "There's a list put out by the National Office of Jesuits that are most likely prepared to work in administration and have expressed desire," he said.

Trustee members were appointed through election within the board. Potential faculty members of the committee will be determined by the faculty senate, who will make recommendations to the Board of Trustees. The board will appoint two members to serve on the committee.

The committee's responsibilities will be to limit the candidates presented to the board to two or three individuals, Finocchio said. He declined to disclose the process of determining those select candidates, as he said it is "confidential."

The board will consider all applicants, but once the candidate pool has been narrowed down, candidates will likely be brought to the university for face-to-face interviews with the board and various subset groups, as well as a tour of the campus, Finocchio said. Locatelli will advise the selection committee upon its request, Briggs said, but will not be directly involved in the selection of his successor.

As it is likely that whoever is chosen will already be employed at another institution, it could still be months between the time that a successor is chosen and when he will step in as president. The latest possible installation of the new president would be June 2009, according to both Briggs and Locatelli.

"This is a huge position to fill, and it's safe to say that the next president will not be a clone of Father Locatelli," said Briggs. "It's going to be a different person with a different set of skills and experiences and interest, but there seems to be a lot of confidence that this will be a position filled by the right person."

Contact Liz O'Brien at (408) 554-4546 or eobrien@scu.edu.