The Board of Trustees hopes to announce the new chancellor of SIUC before their July board meeting, President of the system Dan Mahony said during a press conference after the board’s regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday.

After finalist Kenneth Evans of Lamar University dropped out of the running for chancellor, the two remaining candidates are Austin Lane and Susan Stapleton.

(See more: Kenneth Evans Withdraws from Chancellor Search.)

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“I’ve gotten feedback from the search committee as well as a wide variety of different constituency groups so utilizing that to make the decision that would be the best fit for us as a chancellor going forward,” Mahony said. 

Chancellor John Dunn said SIUC plans to host both online and in person commencement ceremonies in the wake of COVID-19.

“It is a great moment and I know it really hurts to realize that we cannot do this as we normally do, because it clearly is, in my opinion, the best day on the university campus,” Dunn said.

Dunn said there will be a virtual ceremony on May 9 and the university is considering an in person ceremony sometime in August.

“We did do a survey of our students, the virtual was not as well received as an in person commencement, nevertheless we’ll do both to try and help maybe maximize the opportunity,” Dunn said.

News Editor Kallie Cox can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @KallieECox.

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