Chancellor search to continue interviews

(Jan. 4, 2001)   —   The Chancellor Search Committee at East Carolina University conducted another candidate interview Thursday (Jan. 4), and plans to schedule another meeting to hold additional interviews later this month.

Phillip R. Dixon, chairman of the committee and chair of the ECU Board of Trustees, said the panel had received permission from several candidates to do expanded reference checks with individuals who were not on the candidates’ lists of references.

The committee decided against increasing the number of people who are participating in the search. The ECU Faculty Senate had asked for the committee to consider such an expansion.

The committee’s deliberations and interviews have taken place in closed sessions, and the panel, following the recommendation of University of North Carolina President Molly Broad, has not released the names of candidates.

The 15-member committee includes four faculty members as well as trustees and representatives of students, staff members and alumni. Dr. Richard Eakin, chancellor at the university since 1987, announced last April that he will retire this year, effective with the arrival of his successor.

Dixon said that one candidate and that individual’s spouse had already visited the ECU campus and at least three others plan to do so.

The committee also briefed members of the ECU Board of Trustees on the progress of the search.