Columbus State presidential candidates down to four

The search for the next president of Columbus State University is down to four candidates.

The Columbus State University Presidential Search and Screening Committee announced Thursday it has recommended to the University System of Georgia Board of Regents the following candidates for consideration to be the fifth president in CSU's 57-year history:

Randy Hanna, 56, was chancellor of the Florida College System (formerly known as the Florida Community College System) from 2011 through the end of 2014, when he resigned to pursue a university presidency and return to the Tallahassee, Fla., law firm Bryant Miller Olive, where he worked for 27 years. He has been a college professor, college board member, a trustee for educational and state organizations and an attorney for the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services and then-U.S. Sen. Bob Graham. Hanna has a law degree from Florida State University and a doctorate in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania.

Chris Markwood, 49, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi since 2011. He was at the University of Wisconsin-Superior for five years, serving as interim chancellor and vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculties. He also has served and taught at the University of Central Oklahoma and Lamar University in Texas. He has a doctorate in political science from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Carl Stockton, 57, provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs at University of Houston-Clear Lake since 2007. He was a dean at the University of Texas-Brownsville and has served and taught at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington and Radford University in Virginia. He has a doctorate in health education from the University of Tennessee.

Jose-Marie Griffiths, 62, vice president for Academic Affairs at Bryant University in Rhode Island, where she has worked since 2010. She was a dean at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and has served or taught at the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Michigan, the University of Tennessee, The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and the University of California-Berkeley.

Thursday's announcement means the committee eliminated only one of the five candidates who visited campus this month: Aldemaro Romero Jr., 63, the former dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Southern Illinois University, where he is a biology professor after losing his five-year deanship Dec. 31 in a reorganization. But the state board requires the local committee to recommend 3-5 candidates, so the highest number of visiting candidates the local committee could have eliminated was two.

Out of 60 applicants, the 17-member search and screening committee chose 11 to interview. Ten were interviewed last month in Atlanta, and five made the cut.

Now, the decision is beyond local control, because the search and screening committee isn't allowed to rank the candidates it recommends. The Special Regents' Search Committee will recommend an unspecified number of finalists to chancellor Hank Huckaby, who will recommend his top choice to the full board. The final decision is expected to be made next month.

The five candidates who visited this month each spent parts of three days meeting with groups and individuals, including two forums open to the public, one on the main campus in midtown and the other on the RiverPark campus in downtown. The search and screening committee received feedback from the public through 325 online surveys, said CSU Faculty Senate executive officer and associate professor of business administration John Finley, the committee's chairman.

Finley explained the committee's decision after Thursday's deliberation.

"On balance, the committee was impressed by the caliber of these candidates and the diversity of backgrounds they brought to the process" he said in a news release. "The consensus is that any of these candidates will be able to build on the momentum we have going here at Columbus State."

Finley praised the committee, which comprises mostly faculty members as well as alumni, CSU Foundation trustees, a student and a staff member.

"These folks obviously care deeply about Columbus State University and put in countless numbers of hours into the search and selection process," he said in the release. "CSU is lucky to count each of them as a supporter, and I am proud to have worked with such a dedicated and hard-working group. We also highly appreciate the thorough participation and involvement by the CSU community."

Tim Mescon, who announced his departure six months ago, was CSU president for six years when he retired Dec. 31 to move to Amsterdam and become senior vice president and chief officer for Europe, the Middle East and Africa with the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International.

Mescon is the fourth president in the 57-year history of CSU, which began as Columbus College. Thomas Whitley served from 1958-79, Francis Brooke from 1980-87 and Frank Brown from 1988-2008.

Tom Hackett, the CSU provost and vice president for academic affairs, has been serving as interim president.

Mark Rice, 706-576-6272. Follow Mark on Twitter@MarkRiceLE.

The Special Regents’ Search Committee comprises six regents:

C. Thomas Hopkins Jr., an orthopedic surgeon in Griffin, will chair the committee.

Donald Leebern Jr., a Columbus native and chairman of McDonough-based Georgia Crown Distributing Co. He chaired the search committee when Mescon, then dean of the business college at Kennesaw State University, was hired as CSU president in June 2008.

Sachin Shailendra, president of SG Contracting in Atlanta.

Kessel Stelling Jr., president and CEO of Columbus-based Synovus Financial Corp.

Larry Walker, former Majority Leader of the Georgia House of Representatives, now an attorney with Walker, Hulbert Gray & Byrd in Perry.

Wilheit, president of Wilheit Packaging and Marketing Images in Gainesville.

The CSU Presidential Search and Screen Committee has 17 members:

* John Finley, CSU associate professor of business administration and the executive officer of the faculty senate, will chair the committee.

* Kevin Burgess, CSU associate professor of biology.

* Clarence "Earl" Coleman, CSU professor of music.

* Courtney George, CSU assistant professor of English.

* Tim Howard, CSU professor of mathematics.

* Stuart Rayfield, CSU associate professor and director of the Servant Leadership Program.

* Michael Richardson, CSU professor and director of the education doctorate program.

* Ekaterina Strekalova, CSU assistant professor of early childhood education.

* Aimee Vael, CSU associate professor of nursing.

* Amber Dees, assistant director of CSU’s public administration program and president of the staff council.

* Rachel Green, president of the CSU Student Government Association.

* Richard Holmes, CSU Foundation Board of Trustees member.

* Nancy Buntin, CSU Foundation Board of Trustees member.

* John Lee, an otolaryngologist in Columbus.

* Tony Link, chairman of the CSU Foundation Board of Trustees.

* Marc Olivié, president and CEO of W.C. Bradley Co., and CSU Foundation Board of Trustees member.

* Jimmy Yancey, CSU Foundation Board of Trustees member.

This story was originally published March 19, 2015 at 6:30 PM with the headline "Columbus State presidential candidates down to four."