Open meetings for research and development candidates today, Monday

As the end of the fiscal year approaches, it seems many departments are either tightening belts, filling vacant slots, or both.

Today and Monday the Research and Graduate Dean’s office will have open meetings for candidates for the position of associate vice chancellor for research and director of office research development and administration.

The sessions are designed to be an opportunity for candidates to personally interact with the larger campus body.

Although many candidates begin the session by giving information about their backgrounds, the structure of the session often becomes a question and answer period.

The two candidates are Prudence M. Rice and Donald Nielsen. Rice is currently the acting associate dean and director of research development and administration at SIUC. Nielsen is a consultant for the Huntington Medical Research Institute in Pasadena, Calif.

Long before this stage in the hiring process, Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Dean John Koropchak described the initial steps as standard for upper-administrative positions.

“Like other departments, we start off with a search committee,” he said. “The point is to make sure that the candidates who make it this far are the most qualified.

“Once the committee offers a list of names, the candidates come to campus for a series of interviews. I then meet with them and make a request for hire.”

The final say does not simply belong to Koropchak.

“There are a number of offices that have to approve the hire, like Affirmative Action,” he said.

Since the candidates who come out for interviews have already been deemed qualified, other criteria is applied once they arrive.

“There isn’t any kind of scorecard,” Koropchak said. “We’re looking for the candidate that can best satisfy the needs of the campus and progressively advance and achieve our research goals.”

He hopes a decision will be made in just a few days following the open sessions, which will take place in Woody Hall room C227 from 1:30 p.m. to 2:20 p.m. The meetings are open to faculty, administration and students.

Reporter Bertie Taylor can be reached at [email protected]