WFU forms Presidential Transition Committee

Hatch, provost at the University of Notre Dame, will become president July 1. He will succeed Thomas K. Hearn Jr., Wake Forest’s president since 1983, who announced last spring that he would retire June 30, 2005.

The Presidential Transition Committee, which met for the first time Jan. 27, is composed of faculty and staff members, students, trustees, alumni and parents. It will advise on various aspects of the transition, including many of Hatch’s early activities this year with the campus community as well as events, such as inauguration activities next fall.

K. Wayne Smith, a member of the Wake Forest Board of Trustees who served on the Presidential Search Committee, is chairman of the newly-established committee. Vice chairs are trustee Jeanette Hyde of Raleigh and Edwin G. Wilson, provost emeritus and professor emeritus of English at Wake Forest. Wilson served on the Presidential Search Committee, also.

“Wake Forest is drawing on the experience, knowledge and creativity of the university community in approaching issues associated with the presidential transition,” Smith said. “On the transition committee, we have members representing the university’s many constituencies—from students to faculty to alumni—and all bring something unique to the effort.”

“Our goal on the transition committee is to make this process as open and inclusive as possible,” Smith said. “We will keep the community informed of the committee’s progress in the months ahead.”

Meanwhile, Smith added, the committee is open to hearing suggestions from the entire university community and is in the process of establishing a Web site for this purpose.

Twelve faculty members—representing the undergraduate, graduate and professional schools—will serve on the Presidential Transition Committee. They include Chester “Chet” Miller (Babcock Graduate School of Management); Gordon E. McCray (Calloway School of Business and Accountancy); Douglass M. Bailey (Divinity School); Charles P. Rose Jr. (School of Law); Judy Brunso-Bechtold (School of Medicine); and Michele K. Gillespie, Katy J. Harriger, Harry B. Titus, Win-Chiat Lee, Barry G. Maine, Eric “Rick” Matthews and Gloria K. Muday, all of the undergraduate College. Gillespie and Brunso-Bechtold served on the Presidential Search Committee. Muday is president of the University Senate; Titus is president-elect of the University Senate.

Students on the new committee include senior James A. “Jamie” Dean of Pickerington, Ohio, and Kamieka Hairston of Eden, a student in the Babcock School. Dean, a student member of the university’s board of trustees, also served on the Presidential Search Committee.

Other members include Nancy Kuhn of Washington, D.C., (representing the College Alumni Council); Matt and Llew Ann King of Brentwood, Tenn., (representing the Parents Council); and Barbara Walker, senior associate athletic director at Wake Forest (representing the administrative staff).

Ex-officio members are trustees Murray C. Greason Jr. and L. Glenn Orr Jr. Greason is chairman of the university’s board of trustees and chaired the Presidential Search Committee. Orr is vice chairman of the board of trustees.

University staff members assisting the committee are Sandra Boyette, vice president for university advancement; Reid Morgan, vice president and counsel; Jennifer Richwine, director of special events and constituent relations; and Nancy Moore, administrative assistant.