THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, JANUARY 22, 2009
NEWS
7A
ADMINISTRATION
Committee begins search for new chancellor
BY BRIANNE
PFANNENSTIEL
bpfannenstiel@kansan.com
Chancellor Robert Hemenway announces he will step down from his position on June 30 at a press conference in Strong Hall Dec. 8. Hemenway, the University's 16th chancellor, has held the position since 1995. Hemenway said that he wished to dedicate more time to writing and teaching.
JANUARY 15
File photo by Ryan McGeeney/KANSAN 16th chauffer has held the
A national search began to find a replacement for Chancellor Robert Hemenway after he announced in early December that he planned to retire this year. A. Drue Jennings, the former CEO of Kansas Power & Light who chairs the search committee, said he hoped the process would be visible and open to the public. He outlined the following timeline for the search.
The Regents named a search committee with 18 members. The committee includes six members representing KU faculty, staff and administration, one member representing students, four people representing alumni and endowment, another four members representing the community and two representing the Board of Regents.
"The Board of Regents invited groups that have an interest that are related to KU to submit names," Jennings said. "There was a long list of people that were identified. The Board went through them and as they whittled that list down to those that could represent this very diverse group of people."
FEBRUARY 2
Jennings said the committee would try to hold its first meeting on Feb. 2 or early in the first week of February. The committee will be meeting with Bill Funk, a consultant who has been hired to oversee
the search.
"He'll help guide us in the mechanics of the search," Jennings said. "He is very well connected within the academic committee and has worked for several years placing chancellors and presidents in many major universities throughout the country."
Jennings said the committee would gather to talk about the attributes and characteristics they would like to see in candidates. Then, during the two weeks, he said the committee would refine its ideas and put together a draft of the position description.
"We're looking for somebody with impeccable credentials," Jennings said. "We want people who are going to relate well to alumni and donors and certainly the student body."
Adam McGonigle, Wichita junior and student body president, is the only student who sits on the committee. He said he wanted to use his position to represent the needs of students.
"I think the students bring a unique perspective," McGonigle said. "The faculty will prioritize academics. I'll prioritize people for how they can help students."
Jennings said he hoped to have the committee present its report to the Regents for approval by the end of February.
MARCH 1
Jennings said Funk would start advertising for the position in journals of higher education. The committee will then receive inquiries from interested candidates while
Funk begins the process of recruiting.
Jennings said the search would take place for several months before the committee identified 12 to 15 candidates to speak with. He said he would not publish the names of potential candidates to protect their privacy. The committee will then narrow the list and recommend three to five finalists
to the Regents for interview and selection.
Kip Peterson, director of government relations and communications for the Kansas Board of Regents, said he anticipated that finalists would make appearances at the University to interact with faculty and staff. He said there may be more opportunities for students and community members to offer
input throughout the process, but that it was still too early to say.
JUNE 30
Chancellor Hemenway retires after 14 years at the University.
Jennings said he hoped to be able to announce the new chancellor by July 1.
JULY 1
"Things seem to slow down during the summer, but it's a really critical time for leadership to be there," Jennings said. "We will certainly have somebody before the next school year."
- Edited by Heather Melanson
INTERNATIONAL
Obama to sign executive order closing Guantanamo Bay
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama plans to sign an executive order Thursday to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center within a year and halt military trials of terror suspects held there, a senior administration official said.
The executive order was one of three expected imminently on how to interrogate and prosecute al-Qaida, Taliban or other foreign fighters believed to threaten the United States.
The official said the president would sign the order Thursday, fulfilling his campaign promise to shut down a facility that critics around the world say violates domestic and international detainee rights. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because the event has not yet been announced.
At least three military prisons — at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., Camp Pendleton, Calif., and Charleston, S.C. — could house some of the Guantanamo detainees, an administration official said. Also under consideration, the official said, is the Supermax prison in Florence, Colo., which houses convicted 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph.
An estimated 245 men are being held at the U.S. naval base in Cuba, and 600 others at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Most have been detained for years without being charged with a crime. The administration already has received permission to suspend the trials at Guantanamo for 120 days pending a review of the military tribunals.
nymity because the executive orders have not been issued yet.
A copy of a draft of the order, obtained Wednesday by the AP, dealt only with the Guantanamo prison.
"In view of the significant concerns raised by these detentions, both within the United States and internationally, prompt and appropriate disposition of the individuals currently detained at Guantanamo and closure of the facility would further the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice," the draft order said.
A senior Obama administration official said Wednesday that 60 to 120 Guantanamo prisoners may be considered low-threat detainees and transferred to other countries, either for rehabilitation or release. Only Portugal so far has agreed to take some of those detainees, this official said, although diplomatic discussions are ongoing. The official spoke on condition of ano-
Other detainees could be imprisoned in their home nations. And the rest likely will be transferred to prisons in the United States — a plan that many members of Congress oppose.
Public interest and human rights groups that long have wanted the facility shuttered were quick to urge Obama to be more aggressive than the draft order's proposals.
The Center for Constitutional Rights, which provides many of the Guantanamo detainees with legal representation, said the draft doesn't give specific steps for closing the facility.
"It only took days to put these men in Guantanamo. It shouldn't take a year to get them out," said Vincent Warren, the center's executive director.
The draft requires a review of each Guantanamo case to decide whether the detainees should be returned to their home countries, released, transferred elsewhere or sent to another U.S. prison.
House Republican leader John Boehner said he's open to options, "but most local communities around America don't want dangerous terrorists imported into their neighborhoods, and I can't
blame them."
release them back into the battlefield? If there is a better solution, we're open to hearing it."
"The key question is where do you put these terrorists," Boehner said Wednesday. "Do you bring them inside our borders? Do you
Senate Judiciary Committee
Chairman Patrick Leachy, D-Vt, has
long contended the U.S. can handle relocating the detainees "just as it has handled the worst criminals and other terrorists before," spokesman David Carle said.
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