North Central seeking — and getting — input on president search

The search for North Central College’s 10th president is still in its early stages, but that hasn’t stopped students and alumni from chiming in on what qualities they want to see in the school’s next leader.

Students and community members have participated in the old-fashioned way, by writing letters and attending meetings. Another small group took advantage of the college throwing the question out to Facebook in mid-April.

Questions included “What differentiating qualifications and experience should the next president have?” and “In what ways would you like to see North Central College grow or change? What are the key priorities that you’d like to see the next North Central College president address?”

Assistant Vice President for Marketing and Communications Jim Godo admits the number of replies he received from Facebook wasn’t as great as he expected, but the quality of the answers was very helpful.

“For those people who did give us feedback, we got good feedback on the character traits they want to see in the next president,” Godo said. “We heard from people who said they wanted participants to be of a particular racial group or religious affiliation. We’re a United Methodist institution so we also heard that our president should have those beliefs. It tended to be feedback that represented particular individual’s interest.”

Godo said he thinks the college branching out to social media shows a commitment to seeking feedback and the opinions of every stakeholder.

Officials at the Witt/Kieffer Executive Search Firm, which is assisting the college, agree and said they also found the information gathered on Facebook to be helpful.

“Most institutions are using social media to engage their students these days, but North Central College is using it in a far more energetic way in terms of proactively seeking input,” said Dennis Barden, senior vice president of Witt/Kieffer.

“Their approach surpasses most if not all of the clients I’ve ever had and it showed in the responses they received. A vast majority of them have been very strategic and overarching rather than specific to particular interests.”

The search committee will take much of May to organize and decipher the feedback to outline the capabilities and characteristics they desire in a new president, so it’s unlikely social media websites will be tapped again for the process. But Godo wouldn’t hesitate to use it again, should the opportunity present itself.

“I’m really very pleased that we went to social media to give that opportunity to our community,” Godo said. “I’d definitely use it again for the right topic and right circumstance. It was a very helpful and useful experience.”

President Hal Wilde will retire at the end of the year, ending a 22-year run presiding over the 3,000 student college. The college hopes to introduce its next president in November.