A job description for the next university president was approved by the Board of Trustees (BOT) on Thursday.

The Presidential Search Advisory Committee (PSAC) met before a joint meeting with the BOT to discuss the proposed qualifications for the next president set by PSAC members. PSAC is a committee that was approved by the BOT with searching for NIU President John Peters’ replacement after he announced that he would step down. Parker Executive Search was approved by the BOT with helping PSAC with their search. After reviewing the preferred qualifications, Lisa Freeman, vice president for research and graduate studies, suggested leadership qualities should be emphasized more but had issues with other qualifications regarding personality traits and management.

“I have a concern that we’re maybe just quite not at a high enough level there to send an appropriate message on how important leadership and vision are important to us,” Freeman said.

Milivoje Kostic, mechanical engineering professor, said he wanted an emphasis on the president being an advocate for the role of higher education.

Some of the members of the committee questioned whether the candidates should come from an academic background or not. NIU Foundation chair Dennis Barsema was worried the preference of wanting a candidate with an academic background would exclude someone who might be a great candidate despite coming from a non-academic backgrounds. Alan Rosenbaum, PSAC co-chair and psychology professor, said the description wanting a candidate from an academic background was only a preference and wouldn’t exclude non-academic candidates.

Educational psychology professor Lee Shumow said it is common sense to want a candidate from an academic background since people’s expertise in one field are not always transferable in other fields.

“I don’t think a bank would consider hiring a leader that had no banking experience,” Shumow said.

Rosenbaum said he agreed with Shumow. He said there were certain things about academia people might not understand like academic freedom, the sabbatical and tenure system and how academics work outside classes.

During the joint meeting with the BOT, Rosenbaum gave an update on how PSAC members felt about the job description. He said some of them felt the descriptions could be stronger and the list of preferred qualifications could be narrowed down.

BOT Chair Cherilyn Murer asked if it was possible for PSAC members to come to a consensus with the BOT on the description and have it refined in the future. She said unless there were harmful or offensive things in the description, it could be modified.

“Time is of the essence and we don’t want to have to wait another month,” said Robert Boey, PSAC chair and BOT vice chair.

After the discussion, the BOT approved PSAC’s recommendations of the job description, with the provision that changes to it will be made and given to Parker Executive Search.