CHARLESTON - Eastern Illinois University has narrowed its search for the institution's next president with four candidates.
The candidates are Jay Gatrell, the current vice president of academic affairs at Eastern; David Brennen, former dean of the University of Kentucky's David Rosenberg College of Law; Diana Rogers-Adkinson, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania; and Michael Godard, provost at Southeast Missouri State University.
Each candidate will have a day scheduled to meet with stakeholders, the staff, faculty, students and the greater Charleston community. Community portion will take place from 5 to 5:50 p.m. on their respective days in the Arcola/Tuscola Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union or remotely via Zoom.
Current president, David Glassman, is scheduled to retire in June. Glassman has served as the university's president since 2015 and announced his retirement in October 2021.
Gatrell has worked at Eastern since 2017 and will meet with stakeholders on Jan. 10. In his current role Gatrell oversees Eastern's academic endeavors and has assisted in increasing full-time enrollment numbers at the university, the increase of international students and creating Eastern's Gail and Richard Lumpkin School of Nursing.
Brennen currently serves as the vice chair of the Council of the American Bar Association and is a professor of law at the University of Kentucky. He will meet with stakeholders on Jan. 12.
As a former dean, Brennen boasts securing several $1 million gifts and a $20 million naming gift for his college, raising $56 million in gifts, state appropriations and bonds for a new building, and increasing the college's endowment by 25%.
Eastern Illinois University President David Glassman speaks during the Community Update Breakfast held by the Charleston and Mattoon Chambers of Commerce on Friday at the Unique Suites Hotel in Charleston.
Brennen shared his passion for working in higher education.
"As a product of public schools and first-generation African American college graduate, I can attest to the positive impact of higher education. College is a transformative place that opens eyes, forges paths, and births leaders," Brennen said. "This is especially so at a place like EIU — ‘a public comprehensive university that offers superior accessible undergraduate and graduate education” where '(t)hroughout their education, students refine their abilities to reason and to communicate clearly so as to become responsible citizens and leaders.’”
Rogers-Adkinson's current position requires her to serve across a three-campus university as second-in-command to the president of Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania. She will meet with stakeholders on Jan. 17.
Starting her current role in July, she has facilitated the creation of a new mission, vision, and values for her university, established procedures meant to unify academic affairs operations across the three campuses and facilitated the reorganization of the academic colleges and departments. Before her current role, she served as the provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Bloomsberg University.
Rogers-Adkinson said she believes Eastern and her values and experience will align.
"I believe my leadership experiences to date have prepared me well for the presidency of Eastern Illinois University," Rogers-Adkinson said. "I have led at rural regional comprehensive institutions with a strong first-generation emphasis. Each has had a strong grounding in the liberal arts and have been American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) affiliated institutions"
As provost of Southeast Missouri State University, Godard has experience in leading academic side of a university similar in size to Eastern. He will meet with stakeholders Jan. 23.
In his current role, Godard co-chaired the University Strategic Action Planning Committee and is implementing the plan, worked with deans, chairs, the Faculty Senate and full-time faculty on a comprehensive academic prioritization review process and collaborated with the university's foundation office to secure several large gifts.
"The emphasis on diversity and inclusion, student-faculty scholarship, and applied learning experiences with a student-centered campus culture aligns directly with my core values," Godard said. "I have great respect for Eastern Illinois University as a premier comprehensive university. Having served at comprehensive institutions in both Missouri and Illinois for a large portion of my career, I feel I have a firm understanding of the innovative solutions that are vital to respond to the ongoing challenges and the ethic of care necessary to ensure that Eastern Illinois University achieves further academic advances."
Those interested can find more information on each candidate on the president search page on Eastern's website, including the candidates' letter of interest, curriculum vitae and diversity statement.
The Eastern Illinois University campus through the years
Students walk across the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston on Thursday, Aug. 30.
Students walk across the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston on Aug. 30.
Students walk across the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston on Thursday, Aug. 30.
Students walk and bike across the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston on Aug. 30.
Herald & Review, Lisa Morrison Dakota Radford, one of two volunteer coordinators, starts to hand out supplies to Eastern Illinois University volunteers at the start of a cleanup session at Whiteside Gardens. Students pictured are from left, Haley Vance, Sam McKinney, Jeremy Cielak and Joseph Lenhardt.
Eastern Illinois University student Cierra Hill of Chicago cleans the snow off her windshield in Charleston on Tuesday.
Eastern Illinois University's Sherman Blanford takes a shot over Cleveland State's Anton Grady Friday night at Lantz Arena in Charleston. (Ken Trevarthan/Staff Photographer).
