Richard McKee, executive assistant emeritus to the president, once said it takes about nine months to a year to conduct a thorough search for a president.
And the next school year is less than a year away -- leaving trustees about 10 months if they want to find a president to take the helm when students arrive.
Board President Tom DeWeese said Monday he hopes to form a committee within the week to find a new president. The committee does not have to name a person when school starts in August.
DeWeese said the commitee will represent a cross-section of interests.
In Sept. 2, 1999, when the 13-member committee that recommended Brownell first congregated, it included trustees, administrators, alumni, community members, faculty and one student -- former Student Government Association President Jamey Davidson.
Jayson Manship now heads the SGA, and he might be asked to serve on the new committee.
Though SGA members said Brownell was accommodating, they said they are looking for student-oriented leadership from the next university president. Student organizations also have goals for the new president.
Morenike Aderiye, the president of the Black Student Association, said she hopes the university finds a president who will refrain from cutting programs like athletics and find other ways to supplement costs.
Ben Tietz, president pro tempore of SGA and president of the Interfraternity Council, said the committee should look for a president who will represent student organizations well.
"One thing I would like to see is a president that puts student needs at a higher priority," Adam Ittenbach, SGA vice president, said.
Nancy Carlson, then chairwoman of the Senate, served on the committee that helped hire Brownell, and she said candidates for the job commented on how democratic the process was.
"I hope they'll do the same thing over again," Carlson said.
Current Senate Chairwoman Marilyn Buck said she has not been contacted by the board yet, but she said she would accept the invitation to serve on the committee if asked.
The committee to select Brownell also used a national head-hunting agency, Academic Search, to find candidates.
Trustee Greg Schenkel said the board has contacted similar agencies, but he wouldn't name them until the trustees had signed a contract.
The board will have ultimate say in who is hired as president. In 1999, the board asked the search committee to narrow the field down to two to four candidates.
The committee gave the trustees three.
Because Worthen announced his retirement a year before he left, the university did not need an interim president.
Brownell, however, will leave at the end of January, a semester before his contract expires.
To fill in until a new president is found, the board will appoint an interim president.
The last time the trustees had to do this was in 1981. They selected Robert Bell, former vice president of business affairs.
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