Covenant News

North Park University to Continue Presidential Search

CHICAGO, IL (May 16, 2005) - The search will continue for a candidate to become president of North Park University, it was announced this afternoon by the Board of Trustees following a meeting of the board this weekend.

The board action follows the presidential search committee's report that it has not identified a person to recommend to the board. The board further indicated that there are no candidates currently being considered by the committee.

Originally, the names of three candidates were announced, although one of those candidates, Jonathan R. Heintzelman, vice president for advancement at Loyola University, withdrew his name from consideration on May 2. The remaining candidates were Kurt F. Geisinger, vice president for academic affairs and a tenured professor at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas, and John E. Phelan Jr., president, dean and professor of biblical literature at North Park Theological Seminary.

Bruce Bickner, chair of the Board of Trustees and acting chief executive officer, said that the rules of confidentiality adopted by the search committee and board did not allow for any specifics of their deliberations to be made public.

He did clarify the selection process that the committee worked through with their initial three finalists. "We had strong consensus to move the candidates from the semifinalist to the finalist stage," Bickner said, "but that did not mean that we were saying that one or any of the three finalists would necessarily be the recommended candidate."

The committee will meet again in late summer or early fall and plans to present a candidate to the board on a timetable consistent with approval by the Evangelical Covenant Church during its Annual Meeting in June 2006.

Due in part to changes in board membership and inclusion of student representatives, there have been subsequent changes to the search committee. The 13-member presidential search committee charged with presenting a candidate to the board includes the following: Joe Alulis, Ann Alvarez, Philip Anderson, Bruce Bickner, Gregory Crawford, Sara Jo Forsman, Janet Johnson, Arthur Nelson, Glenn Palmberg, Armour Swanson, Ted VanDerMeid, and two student representatives to be named later - one representing the university and one representing the seminary.

Until a candidate is identified by the search committee and approved by the Board of Trustees and the Evangelical Covenant Church, a three-member team will manage daily operations at the university, including Carl Balsam, Jay Phelan and Dan Tepke as members of the Office of the President. Bruce Bickner, who chairs the university Board of Trustees, will continue to serve as the institution's chief executive officer.

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