Trustees Frank Bracken, Greg Schenkel and Hollis Hughes will serve on the committee to help find Ball State's next president, Trustee President Tom DeWeese said Tuesday.
DeWeese added that he hopes to name the other appointments to the group, which is expected to be composed of 13 members, this afternoon.
"I had hoped to name it by now," he said. "I just thought I would have made it by now."
DeWeese might have to wait until Thursday morning, he said, if he can't contact the last three or four potential members -- including the student representative.
DeWeese said he chose the three trustees because they serve on the executive committee, but he said all trustees will have a vote in Brownell's replacement.
"I just went down the line and picked the ... three," he said.
Blaine Brownell announced on Oct. 20 that he would leave the president's office at the end of January. He will become the CEO of U21pedagogica Limited, an international network of 17 universities in ten countries.
Along with the trustees, University Senate Chairwoman Marilyn Buck will serve, as will representatives for students, staff, service workers, university officers, the Alumni Association and the University Foundation.
The president that the committee helps choose will inherit a university with unprecedented freshmen enrollment and unprecedented tuition increases.
The new president will also lead a university that is in the middle of implementing a six-year strategic plan.
Faculty and trustees will make up the majority of the committee. DeWeese said he expects faculty to have about three representatives.
The committee will work with Baker Parker and Associates, which conducts national searches for executives and presidents, to find a pool of candidates.
When John Worthen retired in 1999, the search committee recommended three candidates to the board.
DeWeese wouldn't say if the trustees will ask for three candidates this time. Instead, he deferred the issue to committee members.
Hughes said he didn't want to outline any specific ideas as to how the committee should operate, saying that he looked forward to hearing the committee members' ideas.
"I'll be glad to do the very best that I can," Hughes said.
Hughes did not serve on the committee to find Brownell, but Bracken and Schenkel did, along with then-University Senate chairwoman Nancy Carlson and Jamey Davidson, then president of Student Government Association.
That committee was appointed in September, and Brownell began his first official day on July 1, 2000.
July 1 is once again the target date, DeWeese said, giving the search committee and the trustees about nine months to fill the job.
Executive Assistant Emeritus Richard McKee, who worked at Ball State for 39 years before retiring, said a thorough search for a president usually requires nine to 12 months.
DeWeese said he isn't panicking yet.
"I really don't feel any pressure on that," he said. "I don't mean to minimize it, but I don't really feel any pressure as far as time constraints."
Brownell will leave the university after Jan. 31, and if a replacement isn't found by then, the board will name an interim president.
DeWeese said the trustees will probably discuss the interim position during their executive session Friday.
Trustee Kimberly Hood Jacobs said an interim president should be someone who views the job as a temporary position, not a "proving ground" to see if that person could be president.
"I think other universities have tried that, and they were sorry about it," Jacobs said.
The last interim president, Robert Bell, was later named president officially.
After Bell retired, John Worthen took over. He stayed as president for 16 years before handing the reins to Brownell.
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