Consultants will be hired to find new COD leader

The quest is on to find a new president for the College of DuPage.

Trustees Monday night agreed to hire search consultants from the Association of Community College Trustees to find a new leader for the Glen Ellyn-based college - likely by Jan. 1.

They'll pay them $15,000 for a limited search and selection process plus $1,500 for background checks on candidates. They expect the organization to winnow the list of applicants down to about 10 people.

And they expect the process to begin next week.

"We're planning on moving forward in an expeditious manner," said Harold McAninch, COD's interim president.

Members of key groups on the campus are being invited to attend meetings next week to establish the profile of qualities they would like to see in the next president, McAninch explained. Once the profile is defined, consultants will place ads in multiple publications advertising for the position.

They'll begin screening applicants around mid-September with an eye on presenting the final 10 candidates to the COD board by mid-October. A subgroup of the board, including three trustees, then will winnow that list down to five finalists and plan to begin interviews in late October or early November.

McAninch explained that the subcommittee can invite representatives into the screening meeting for input but "it's the board's ultimate decision."

Hopefully, he continued, the new president would arrive on the job around the first of the year. McAninch has said he intend to spend his winter in Arizona as always.

"I'll welcome them, then bid them goodbye," he joked Monday.

Trustees in May removed former COD President Sunil Chand from his job without explanation after five years, giving him the designation of president emeritus and new fundraising duties. They then appointed McAninch, the former long-time president, to fill in on an interim basis while they sought a new leader.

The school will pay the two men more than $400,000 over the next year: at least $273,482 for the remainder of Chand's contract this school year and $113,776 for McAninch.

That total will increase again when they add the new president's salary in January.