New Rutgers President Could Be Selected Within Month

The next president of Rutgers University will be chosen from a slate of three to six finalists that includes at least one woman and no one who currently works in New Jersey, the chairman of the search committee said Friday.

Motorola Solutions CEO Greg Brown, a Rutgers alum who heads the 24-member committee, said the finalists were presented to the Board of Governors, who will decide which candidate will succeed outgoing president Richard McCormick as the leader of the 58,000-student research institution.

A decision could be made by the end of the month, Brown said.

“The final short list was very strong,” said Brown, noting that all of the finalists are from academia. “In the face of a lot of changes that are being made, and tumultuous times in the Rutgers community, I was pleased with the search process.”

Brown was referring to Gov. Chris Christie’s plan to merge Rutgers-Camden with Rowan University while adding UMDNJ’s Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, the School of Public Health and the Cancer Institution of NJ to the Rutgers’ portfolio.

The controversial proposal surfaced after the search committee began its work, but Brown said it did not negatively affect the process.

“I think there was an expectation that as the rhetoric heated up, it might deter some candidates from moving forward,” he said. “It didn’t.”

The search committee was formed in August and began with a list of 250 nominations, Brown said. The committee interviewed seven of those individuals, and presented a smaller “short-list” to the university’s governing board. No names have been released.

McCormick, who has led Rutgers since 2002, will step down July 1 but remain on campus as a member of the history faculty.

Information from: The Star-Ledger, http://www.nj.com