Ohio regents say they'll interview 6 for chancellor

12/15/2006

COLUMBUS - The Ohio Board of Regents will interview six candidates for chancellor, including interim chancellor Garry Walters, who has been coordinating the state's colleges since Roderick Chu resigned in May.

"What Ohio needs is a shot of optimism, and this gives me great hope," Regent Jeanette Grasselli Brown said of the candidates at yesterday's committee meeting.

The other candidates who will be interviewed for chancellor by the regents in January are:

•James Applegate, the vice president for academic affairs at the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education since 1999.

•Sally Clausen, president of the University of Louisiana system since 2001.

•Marshall Hill, executive director of the Nebraska Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education since 2005.

•Daniel Layzell, assistant vice president for strategic planning and policy analysis at the University of Illinois, Urbana, since 2005

•James Sulton, executive director of the state of Washington's Higher Education Coordinating Board since 2004.

Academic Search, the Washington-based firm hired by the board, contacted 1,500 people during the recruitment process, a task its senior consultant James Appleberry described as fun.

The firm picked candidates from around the country, seeking diverse backgrounds and those with a "fire in [their] belly," Mr. Appleberry said.

Mr. Chu received a salary of $220,480 before stepping down to accept a position at the Ralph Regula School of Computational Science in Columbus to design systems for measuring state educational and economic data.

All the candidates have doctorates and experience negotiating the hurdles of state bureaucracy, although their resumes contain some unique credentials.

In addition to pairing higher education with economic development in Kentucky, Mr. Applegate plays the piano.

Ms. Clausen, formerly Louisiana's secretary of education, was also chairman of the International Special Olympics' opening and closing ceremonies in 1983.

Mr. Hill founded an environmental products business in Montana after working as a music professor in Mississippi.

Mr. Layzell, an expert in public funding formulas, was a partner in a Florida company that consulted with education associations in 18 states.

Mr. Sulton studied in Cairo and Sudan before embarking on an academic career that put him in charge of higher education for the states of New Jersey and, now, Washington.

And Mr. Walters, who became interim chancellor after 16 years as Ohio's vice chancellor for academic affairs and economic advancement, holds a black belt in tae kwon do.

Contact Joshua Boak at:

jboak@theblade.com

or 419-724-6728.