The NCAA Executive Committee has appointed a six-president panel chaired by Oregon State President Ed Ray to oversee the search for a successor to the late NCAA President Myles Brand.

Ray, who also was elected chair of the Executive Committee at its October 29 meeting, joins Nebraska Chancellor Harvey Perlman (who will become chair of the Division I Board of Directors in April), Hampton President William Harvey (current Executive Committee member), Molloy President Drew Bogner (who will become chair of the Division II Presidents Council in January), Widener President James Harris (who will become chair of the Division III Presidents Council in January) and Weber State President Ann Millner (current chair of the Division I Presidents Advisory Group) in administering the search for the Association’s fifth chief executive.

The committee is structured similarly to the search panel the NCAA used when it selected Brand in 2002. Ray noted that none of the individuals on the search committee will be considered candidates.

Brand, who died September 16, had served as NCAA president since January 2003. He was preceded by Cedric Dempsey, Richard Schultz and Walter Byers.

The newly appointed search committee met initially Thursday to begin implementing a process designed to follow a timetable consistent with most campus presidential searches. Ray said the committee hopes to have a new president in place by the beginning of the next academic year.

That process includes:

• Selecting a search firm
• Gathering input from membership constituents on the expectations for a president
• Identifying candidates
• Conducting preliminary interviews to narrow the field to best three or four for final consideration
• Having the full Executive Committee interview the finalists and select the new president

While the process is fairly straightforward, Ray said not to expect frequent or even occasional updates along the way. 

“It is my intention that this process will be characterized by two important principles:  integrity and confidentiality,” he said. “It is critical to a successful search effort that it be open, inclusive, deliberative and fair.  The search committee will do everything in its power to ensure that access to the process for everyone interested will be available and encouraged. 

“We also must be committed to conducting the search at every step with a level of confidentiality that protects the candidates who agree to be considered and protects the reputation of higher education in the conduct of those considerations.”

Search committee members

Ray, who became president at Oregon State in 2003, was executive vice president and provost at Ohio State and a member of the economics faculty, including as chair of the economics department from 1976-92.

Perlman was named chancellor at Nebraska in 2001 after serving on an interim basis for nearly a year. He had been dean of the institution’s law school and served as interim senior vice chancellor for academic affairs. He also taught at Chicago, Virginia, Florida State, Puget Sound and Iowa. He holds a bachelor’s degree and juris doctorate from Nebraska. His area of legal expertise is torts and intellectual property. He was named a Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation in February 2002.

Harvey has been president at Hampton since 1978. He previous served as assistant for governmental affairs to the dean of the graduate school of education at Harvard, administrative assistant to the president at Fisk and as administrative vice president at Tuskegee.

Bogner has been president at Molloy since July 2000. Before that, Bogner was executive vice president for academic affairs at Newman, where he also held several other positions, including dean of community education, chair of the Institute for Teacher Education, professor of education and professor of biology.

Harris, who has been president at Widener since 2002, chaired a Division III Presidents Council subcommittee that authored a series of “white papers” in 2008 addressing issues related to Division III growth and diversity. The white papers are the basis for such current Division III priorities as its presidential-leadership and identity initiatives. Harris also served for eight years as president at Defiance.

Millner became president at Weber State in 2002 after having worked there as an educator and administrator for two decades in university advancement, community partnerships and continuing education.