The group searching for the university’s next chancellor has narrowed its candidate pool to nine people.

Carl Flowers, co-chair of the Chancellor Search Advisory Committee, said the nine are strong candidates, and he expects the committee will recommend the top finalists to President Randy Dunn by the end of this week. The top contenders will be invited for on-campus, open forum interviews. 

“The search committee is on target to possibly start having campus interviews later in the month of April or in May,” said Flowers, who co-chairs the committee with Meera Komarraju, chairwoman of the Department of Psychology.

Flowers, director of the Rehabilitation Institute, said the committee has been conducting Skype interviews with potential candidates, which it will continue to do this week. While he would not say how many of the nine work at SIU, Flowers said the committee has received internal and external applicants.

The university has spent about $6,500 on advertisements for the chancellor position, which have appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education and The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education, he said.

In March, Komarraju said the committee wants to find someone who can build a good relationship with the university’s faculty.

“Someone… who would be a positive, visionary and engaging leader,” Komarraju said in a previous interview.

One of the candidates will fill the seat following the November death of interim Chancellor Paul Sarvela. Since then, Dunn has taken on chancellor duties while presiding over the SIU system. While the university has not named chancellor finalists, four finalists for the athletic director position were announced Thursday, which became vacant in January after Mario Moccia started the same position at his alma mater, New Mexico State.

The search for a full-time provost won’t begin until a chancellor is appointed, Dunn said in January.

Luke Nozicka can be reached at [email protected].