Advisory Search Committee vice-chair Judith Whitehead and chair T. Baswell Donaldson address a press conference on Monday January 25th regarding the search process for a new President of The College of The Bahamas.

Nassau, Bahamas - The College Council has revealed an extensive and comprehensive seven step process by which a new College of The Bahamas President will be identified following the retirement of current president Janyne Hodder, effective June 30, 2010.

According to College Council Chair Mr. Timothy Baswell Donaldson, The Council agreed on the process at its January 13^th meeting, determining that it would be clear, inclusive and accountable.

Mr. Donaldson, who lead the presidential search for Fisk University – his alma mater – pointed out that while the process is new to The College, it is in many ways similar to university presidential searches around the world.

In the initial step, The College has already issued a request for proposals for prospective executive search firms through local advertisements and academic search networks abroad. Companies have until February 5^th to submit their proposals.

In another critical step, the Advisory Search Committee, which will execute the search process, has been appointed. The committee consists of internal and external representatives of various stakeholder groups. Mr. Donaldson is the chair of the committee and College Council Vice-Chair Judith Whitehead is his deputy. Other members include faculty representative Kremild Saunders; staff representative Miriam Sands; alumni representative Wendy Warren; student representative Brooke Sherman; Clinical Psychologist and Organisational Development Consultant Dr. Timothy McCartney, an academic; community representative Sean McWeeney, QC and College administrator Cheryl Simms.

Once the proposals for executive search firms have been compiled, the advisory committee will review them and select the firm that will be used. Following this, advertisements for the position of College of The Bahamas President will be placed in the local and international arena.

From left are members of the Advisory Search Committee Miriam Sands, staff representative; Judith Whitehead committee vice-chair; T. Baswell Donaldson, committee chair; Cheryl Simms, College administrator and Brooke Sherman, student representative.

“The actual recruitment stage is when The Advisory Search Committee, with the assistance of the search firm, will conduct widespread recruitment activities, both through advertising and direct recruitment of candidates,” explained Mr. Donaldson during a press conference held on Monday, January 25^th.

“Following this, a preliminary candidate list will be developed. This list will come as a result of applications, nominations and other direct recruitment activities. Then, the search firm will conduct the necessary initial screening and reference enquiries and produce a list,” he added.

From this list, the Advisory Search Committee, with the support of the search firm, will develop a short list of candidates to interview. Once these first interviews have been concluded, the Committee will decide on the two or three candidates it wishes to present to the community which will have an opportunity to meet the candidates.

“The committee will decide, as part of its deliberations, exactly how these meetings will occur but it is Council’s intention that candidates have the opportunity of meeting with stakeholder groups and that stakeholders have the opportunity of giving

feedback on these meetings,” Mr. Donaldson said. “Once feedback has been received and the committee has met again, it will then make its recommendation to Council.”

In the final step, Council will determine whether it supports the recommendation. If so, it will seek the approval of the Minister of Education in accordance with the terms of the College Act. At this point, discussions with the preferred candidate will be held to ensure provisional acceptance of an offer should one be made. Once all these steps are complete, Council will make the appointment.

Mr. Donaldson noted that it is difficult to say at this time exactly how long the entire process will take and stressed that “at the moment the best answer we can give is that it will take as long as it takes to do it well.”