A new era begins today with the announcement of Eastern’s 11th president.

President Lou Hencken will be succeeded by one of the three finalists named by the search committee when his contract expires June 30.

Today at 3 p.m., the Eastern Board of Trustees will approve a negotiated contract with either Sue Kiefer Hammersmith, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, Blair Lord, Eastern’s provost and vice president for academic affairs, or William Perry, vice provost at Texas A&M.

A call was made to Perry’s office Monday morning. A receptionist said Perry was out of the office and would not return until Thursday.

Hammersmith is scheduled to meet with Pennsylvania’s Board of Governors Wednesday, April 11, as one of three finalists in a presidential search at Edinboro University, Pennsylvania. The Charleston Times-Courier reported that a spokesperson at Edinboro said Hammersmith would be at the university today. She declined to comment on the announcement Monday evening. She was also named one of four finalists in the search for a new chancellor at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

“There will be a short executive session, and then the board will come out into open session and make a resolution appointing the new president,” said Robert Webb, chair of the presidential search advisory committee and vice chair of Eastern’s Board of Trustees.

A press conference and a reception for the new president will follow the announcement.

“People will have a chance to ask the new president some questions,” Webb said. “I think there will be a nice crowd there. There’s a lot of interest in this.”

Details of the new president’s contract will also be released today. Webb said negotiations with the chosen candidate have been going on for the past two weeks.

President Hencken plans on walking the new president from Old Main to the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union’s Grand Ballroom for the announcement today. But after the announcement, Hencken does not want to stick around because he doesn’t want the attention to be on him.

“It’ll be interesting to see how I feel when I walk to Old Main from the union because I will be walking back by myself,” Hencken said.