The Catholic University of America

An update from the CUA Presidential Search Committee . . . May 10, 2010

As the academic year comes to a close at CUA, I take pleasure in presenting another update regarding our search for the university’s next president. We continue to be on target to meet the timetable originally established by the Board of Trustees to choose a successor to Fr. O’Connell. 

Our goal is to select the individual who most excels in meeting the four core competencies that the Board of Trustees identified as critical for our next president. The candidates we have been evaluating in these recent months have been continually measured against these competencies, which are:
 
  • Catholic identity and mission: As a Catholic institution of higher education, CUA will continue to manifest leadership and participation in the ongoing mission of the Church to engage the contemporary culture with the Gospel message as it is transmitted through the Church. CUA does this through our structures and programs and in the life and activities of students, faculty, and staff.
  • Academic excellence: We seek to attract and nurture top quality faculty and students by enhancing our academic programs and reputation. We will identify, evaluate, and strengthen those academic programs that are excellent, sustainable, and key participants in the dialogue between faith and culture that will equip CUA students to live an authentically Catholic way of life. This aspiration will attract and involve students in the highest quality academic experience and invite accomplished and recognized scholars to the faculty
  •  A focus on students: In the context of participating in a community that derives its inspiration from Catholic values, we aspire to offer a vibrant campus life for our students to help them develop intellectual excellence and the spiritual, social, and human virtues that will be sustain them throughout their lives
  • Resource development and management: We are seeking a President who will attract resources to the University through outreach to our alumni, parents, and friends, building strong bonds with our students, and articulating our distinct message to a broad community. The President will need to balance budgets, build the endowment, finance growth, manage debt, and anticipate future developments.
In my previous update, I reported that the search committee met regularly throughout the winter to evaluate potential candidates.  In March and April, the committee conducted first-and second-round interviews. We now have a small pool of candidates with whom we continue to engage until we have the opportunity to present them to the full Board of Trustees.
 
I wish to express my gratitude to both the university community and the members of the Presidential Search Committee. The fact that the CUA community has been so engaged in this process through the many suggestions and inquiries they directed to us demonstrates that there is a genuine interest in the future well-being of our university. For its part, the Search Committee has worked diligently, oftentimes with great personal sacrifice of time and energy, to review the credentials of numerous candidates, debate the merits of each and, in the end, come to consensus about who should be invited to interview for the position of President. I have been greatly impressed by and appreciative of the cooperative spirit of the members of the committee, who have committed themselves to achieve a common goal.
 
Entrusting this effort to the loving protection of the University's patroness, the Holy Mother of God, I ask you, please, to continue to pray that the Lord God bring what we have begun to a fruitful conclusion.
 

Sincerely yours in Christ,

 
Most Rev. Allen H. Vigneron 
Archbishop of Detroit
Chairman, CUA Board of Trustees and
Chairman of the CUA Presidential Search Committee