Four Finalists Named for SDSU Presidency

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PIERRE, S.D. – Four candidates are finalists to become the next president at South Dakota State University, the South Dakota Board of Regents’ search committee announced Friday.

Regent Terry Baloun, who chairs the search process, said the four finalists are visiting theBrookings campus next Thursday and Friday (Sept. 14-15) for scheduled meetings with campus constituents. A presidential search has been under way since early this year to replace the retiring Peggy Gordon Miller, who has served SDSU as its president since 1998.

The finalists announced Friday are:

David L. Chicoine, vice president for technology and economic development, University of Illinois, Champaign, Ill. Chicoine is the senior officer and adviser to the University of Illinois president and Board of Trustees on technology transfer/commercialization and economic development. In that role, Chicoine also oversees the university’s technology licensing offices, its start-up business and early-stage venture-investing LLC, and its research park and incubator operations. On July 1, he was appointed as the university’s vice president for academic affairs on an interim basis. He previously was dean of the university’s Urbana-Champaign Campus College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, and served as head of the Department of Agricultural Economics. Chicoine is a professor of agricultural economics and a faculty member in the Institute of Government and Public Affairs. His professional career includes work as an Extension economist and as an area economic development Extension adviser. His bachelor’s degree in agribusiness came from SDSU. He holds master’s degrees in economics from Western Illinois University and in agricultural economics from the University of Delaware. His Ph.D. in agricultural economics is from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

William M. Marcy, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas. Marcy manages a budget in excess of $170 million as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Texas Tech University, which offers more than 150 degree programs and enrolls 28,000 students at its main campus in Lubbock. Marcy oversees 10 academic colleges, along with divisions responsible for enrollment management, information technology, and outreach studies. Included in his management portfolio is administration of the Texas Tech University Libraries and five off-campus educational sites. The Division of Outreach and Extended Studies at Texas Tech, for which he is responsible, operates one of the largest extension, distance education, and correspondence programs in the country. Marcy previously was dean of engineering at Texas Tech. His undergraduate and master’s degrees in electrical engineering, as well as his Ph.D. in engineering (interdisciplinary), all were awarded by Texas Tech University. Marcy is a member of the board of directors of the National Institute for Engineering Ethics and is a licensed professional engineer in the state of Texas.

Norval F. Pohl, past president, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas. Pohl’s higher education experience includes working through the faculty ranks followed by service in administrative posts including dean, vice president for finance and administration, provost and executive vice president, and president of the University of North Texas from 2000 until August of this year. At North Texas, he focused on responding to the state’s economic development needs by creating programs in engineering, developing research park infrastructure, creating a technology transfer office, and encouraging faculty to secure more federal grants. Prior to his time in Texas, Pohl held administrative or faculty appointments at higher education institutions in Nevada, Arizona, and California. He has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and an M.B.A. in management, both from California State University at Fresno. His Ph.D. in quantitative systems is from Arizona State University.

Colin G. Scanes, vice president for research and economic development, Mississippi State University, Starkville, Miss. At Mississippi State, Scanes manages a research budget of more than $175 million at an institution ranked in the top 10 for agricultural research and in the top 30 for total engineering research expenditures. Mississippi State serves 13,000 undergraduate and 3,200 graduate students. Scanes has held academic positions at several U.S. land-grant universities and, since the early 1980s, has held a series of increasingly responsible administrative positions. He has been a faculty member and department chair in animal sciences at Rutgers University, a professor of animal science and biomedical science and executive associate agriculture dean at Iowa State University, interim director of the Plant Science Institute at ISU, and director of the Center for Animal Damage Control at Rutgers. He holds degrees from Hull University (United Kingdom) and the University of Wales, including a Ph.D. and doctor of science degree. His title at Mississippi State recently changed from vice president for research and graduate studies to vice president for research and economic development.

Copies of finalists’ professional vitae are posted at http://www.sdbor.edu/SDSUPresidentialSearch/finalists.htm.

The Board of Regents will meet in executive session with the finalists during their campus visits. No action will be taken at these meetings.

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