Presidential Search Update—Nov. 11, 2005

I am writing to you as Chair of Lehigh’s Presidential Search Committee to provide our committee’s first progress report to the campus community. Last evening we held our initial meeting and our consensus was that we should immediately communicate to you important information about our committee, its charge, and how you can become involved and assist us in the search for Lehigh’s next president.
As you know, the search committee is comprised of individuals from a broad cross section of the campus community including faculty, students, alumni, administration and our Board of Trustees. During our first meeting, we adopted a Code of Ethics, which is available online for your review.
This code was created to reinforce the vital importance of conducting the presidential search with integrity and the highest level of confidentiality. It is a pledge embraced by committee members to act in the best interests of the university and uphold the principles and standards articulated in the code as a matter of personal responsibility.
It is worth emphasizing how important it is for everyone to respect the confidentiality that must be maintained by the committee. It is a critical aspect of the search process that allows us to attract the very best candidates. Unless candidates know that their confidentiality will be preserved, many highly talented and well qualified individuals may not pursue the unique opportunity we have at Lehigh. Thus it is the key aspect of our Code of Ethics.
The committee also received its official charge from the Board of
Trustees to proceed with an international search to seek candidates and invite nominations for the position of President of Lehigh University. To support the committee’s effort in that process, an executive search firm is expected to be identified and engaged by the university within two weeks. You can review the charge online.
Importantly, the committee believes that members of the campus community should be appropriately involved in the presidential search process and to that end, a series of Open Forum meetings are planned for early December. These meetings will be open to members of our community to discuss the qualities, attributes, and skills we want our next president to possess. Specific times, dates and locations for these meetings will be announced once they have been finalized.
To keep you informed of updates and progress related to the search, a presidential search web site will soon be developed and the link to that site shared with you. All of the members of the committee are keenly aware of the importance of their role in this effort, as well as its importance to Lehigh’s future. Please continue to support them during this time and feel free to e-mail any comments or questions for the committee to pressearch06@lehigh.edu.