The Presidential Search Advisory Committee announced the number of expected applicants for the position of Eastern’s next president at its first meeting Wednesday.

“I think we can expect somewhere between 50 and 100 applicants,” said Robert Webb, chair of the committee and member of the Board of Trustees. “This committee is going to have a lot of work to do, but it’s for a good cause.”

The 17 members met to introduce themselves and to hear the charge of the committee they’ll be serving on during the estimated six-month process.

The process began when the committee was formed and by early March is expected to have finalists for the position.

Leo Welch, committee member and chair of the Board of Trustees, explained the expectations of the committee to its members.

The charge reads that the committee will be expected to present candidates to the board who will best serve the mission statement of the university.

In future meetings the committee will develop a description for the desired candidate, recruit candidates on a national level and develop criteria for evaluation of applicants.

The tentative timeline for the process will select 12 to 15 semifinalists for reference checks, followed by on-campus interviews of 6 to 8 finalists, and then finally present 3 to 5 candidates to the board members who will make the final decision.

Elaine Hairston, senior consultant for the consultant search firm Academic Search, Inc., will be assisting the committee through the search process.

“The board was unanimous in their belief that she’s the type of person we want helping us with this search,” Webb said. “She has a distinguished career in higher education.”

She will be spending two days on campus next week to meet with university constituents, and will also hold an open meeting for anyone interested in the search.

Her e-mail address will be available to anyone in the community who might want to contact her about the search.

“We are trying to set up a completely transparent process as we go through these steps,” Webb said.

Also at the meeting, Joe Barron, general counsel to the university explained the Open Meetings Act and Confidentiality Requirements to the committee.

Information about applicants is to be kept confidential until later in the process, and the committee has to abide by that requirement.

“Mainly, it’s common sense of being careful,” Barron said. He gave an example for why confidentiality is important in the process.

If an applicant is a sitting president at another university and is later fired because his or her information is made public, those who leaked the information could be the subjects of legal action.

Following Barron’s report, Cynthia Nichols, director of the office of Civil Rights and Diversity also addressed the board about civil rights and diversity considerations of the search. She distributed information about the general campus recruitment strategies and topics to consider while screening candidates.

Also, Webb emphasized President Hencken’s statement that he will not be involved in the search.

“He indicated to the board that he wants to have no part in selecting the next president of Eastern Illinois University,” Webb said. However, the committee will keep him updated on the timeline. Hencken’s contract expires June 1, but he has agreed to stay in his position until a replacement is found.

“If this committee can’t pick an outstanding president, I don’t know where we’d get one,” Webb said.

The committee will meet over breakfast with Hairston 7 a.m., next Wednesday in the Blair Hall Conference Room.