BATESVILLE — The Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board appointed a three-member committee Friday to conduct a search for a state Department of Higher Education director.
That committee’s leader, Kaneaster Hodges of Newport, warned the board that the search will be challenging in part because the Arkansas director’s salary is about $60,000 lower than other states’ directors, and the state’s higher education system has a unique governance structure.
“We’ll have challenges as we find someone to come,” said Hodges, a higher education board member appointed to lead the committee. “It’s not going to be easy to find someone.”
Hodges led the national search to find Jim Purcell, the department’s most recent director.
Purcell left in February to lead Louisiana’s higher education system, a job that pays $275,000,which is $86,000 more than he earned in Arkansas.
Florine Milligan of Forrest Cityand Olin Cook of Russellville were the other board members appointed to the committee during a meeting at the University of Arkansas Community College of Batesville.
Milligan, the former chairman of the Arkansas State University board of trustees, recently led the search for a new president for the Arkansas State University System.
Olin Cook served as the state’s higher education director for 10 years.
The agency’s deputy director, Shane Broadway, has served as interim director since Purcell’s departure.
Board Chairman David Leech had said that he planned to follow through with Gov. Mike Beebe’s proposal to appoint Broadway to permanently fill the role.
That plan drew criticism from Republican lawmakers, who said that Broadway, a former Democratic lawmaker and friend of Beebe’s, did not meet the legal requirements for the job.
Arkansas Code Annotated 6-61-203 says the director “shall be an experienced educator in the field of higher education who demonstrates competence in the field of institutional management and finance. The director and key staff members must have relevant experience on a campus of higher education.”
Broadway, 38, has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Arkansas State University-Jonesboro. He worked as a consultant for the Saline County Economic Development Corp. As a state senator and state representative, he was a member of the legislative bodies’ education committees.
Broadway withdrew his name from the search, citing his wife’s illness, shortly before Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel released an opinion that said, “any person who fails to possess the statutory qualifications ... would be ineligible to serve as director regardless of other factors, including the preference of the board members or university presidents.”
The board did not set a time line for its search.
Hodges said the committee will first place ads and seek applications. “Plan B” will be recruiting people in “No. 2 and No. 3” positions in other states’ higher-education departments, a process the board used to locate Purcell, he said.
The Higher Education Department director is selected by the board but serves at the will of the governor.
Because Beebe is term-limited, some candidates may be hesitant to apply knowing that a new governor will be elected in just two years, Hodges said.
In addition, Arkansas’ Higher Education Department has less authority and less involvement in routine campus matters than similar agencies in other states, he said.
“As we begin the process, I am not naive to the challenges,” Hodges said.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 10/29/2011