Reaching out… and hearing back: An update on Presidential Search Committee outreach

Members of the Presidential Search Committee conducted a significant campus outreach effort in a series of forums, meetings, and conversations that were held from Friday, Sept. 28 through Sunday, Sept. 30. “It was an extensive effort,” said Ed Bass SY ’67 (B.S. ’68), senior fellow of the Yale Corporation.  “We received terrific feedback and guidance that will help the Search Committee and Trustees as we focus our efforts on identifying Yale’s next president.”

Over the course of three days, trustees and committee members conducted over 50 small group or one-on-one meetings with key representatives of campus constituencies, as well as six open forums, one each for undergraduates, the medical campus, the faculty of arts and sciences, graduate and professional students, professional school faculty, and staff. Efforts were made to draw meeting participants from a broad representative sample of campus life. There were meetings with professional school deans, residential college masters, faculty, senior administrators, the University librarian, the director of athletics, Yale’s union leadership, the Women Faculty Forum, the leadership of the Yale College Council, the Graduate-Professional Student Senate, the Graduate Students Association and professional school student governments, athletic team captains, cultural house student leaders, the LGBTQ board, members of Students Unite Now, GESO, and fraternity and sorority presidents, among others. Search committee members and trustees also met with key New Haven city officials, including Mayor John DeStefano and Jorge Perez, president of the New Haven Board of Aldermen.

Amidst the diversity of the participants, these outreach meetings yielded a number of consistent themes. “We came to listen, and we came prepared to hear a wide variety of opinions,” commented Chip Goodyear PC ’80, chair of the Presidential Search Committee. “What we heard turned out to have some remarkable cohesion. Many of the faculty, students, and staff we talked to over the course of the three days shared a common commitment to the place, and a common and ambitious vision for Yale’s future.”

The outreach meetings were intended to focus on three main categories:

(1) What Yale currently does well and should maintain;

(2) Where Yale can continue to improve or develop;

(3) Critical attributes for Yale’s next President.

On the topic of what Yale does and should continue to do well, many people noted the improvement in Yale/New Haven relations, the expansion of Yale’s international engagement, the quality of undergraduate education, and the commitment to Yale’s core missions of research and teaching.

In terms of areas where Yale can continue to improve, some of the most often mentioned opportunities included diversity and inclusion, digital dissemination, administrative and IT systems, and science and engineering resources.

A sampling of the key attributes most often identified for Yale’s next president included having an affinity for the challenges facing higher education today, the ability to develop and articulate a strategic vision, and a talent for building a community.

Feedback received from the days of outreach, combined with the 1,000+ email suggestions and comments that have already been tallied by the Presidential Search Committee, will be used to formulate a position description for the new president that can be used in the recruitment process. The committee continues to schedule outreach meetings and to solicit feedback from Yale students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends, who are encouraged to email presidential.search@yale.edu with their thoughts.