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Williams: "I Think We've Met Our Next President..."

Murray State’s Presidential Search Committee Chairman says he and the search committee have met MSU’s next president. Williams’ statement accompanied an MSU press release about the weekend’s interviews of the top ten candidates.

“I think we have met our next president — I believe the committee is comfortable that one of these fine candidates will rise to be our next president,” said Chairman Stephen Williams.

The candidate pool began with 65 applications. The search committee narrowed the list to 11 and prior to the weekend, one candidate chose to be removed from consideration. 

“The interviews were conversational in nature and I couldn’t be more pleased with the professionalism and thoroughness of our search committee and team,” said Williams

Moreover, Williams emphasized his satisfaction with the candidates.

All of the candidates were generated by the process of the formal search. No candidates were brought forth by any individual or group in the Murray State family and the candidates came from all over the country.

Williams reported that the candidate pool is diverse and the scope of experiences is diverse as well. Each interview lasted approximately 1 1/2 hours.

“In order for us to protect the candidates, we are keeping the names on the list confidential,” stated Williams. “All of these candidates are currently employed and some of them were not pursuing new opportunities so we do not want to jeopardize their current situations. The committee members left Nashville feeling proud of our university and that we are able to attract candidates of this caliber.”

Between now and Feb. 7, the date of the next search committee meeting, the committee will work with the consultants on gathering another layer of information that will include more detailed background and reference checks. The committee will narrow the list to a slate of two to four nominees, in accordance with the committee’s charge from the MSU board of regents. The final slate of candidates will then come to campus for visits with various campus constituencies and for interviews with the board of regents. The board will make the final decision.

Specific plans and logistics for the candidates’ visits and interviews will be finalized over the next few weeks.

Chad Lampe, a Poplar Bluff, Missouri native, was raised on radio. He credits his father, a broadcast engineer, for his technical knowledge, and his mother for the gift of gab. At ten years old he broke all bonds of the FCC and built his own one watt pirate radio station. His childhood afternoons were spent playing music and interviewing classmates for all his friends to hear. At fourteen he began working for the local radio stations, until he graduated high school. He earned an undergraduate degree in Psychology at Murray State, and a Masters Degree in Mass Communication. In November, 2011, Chad was named Station Manager in 2016.
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