Twenty applicants vying to become the next chancellor at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville include the interim chancellor, Charles Robinson, and UA's business dean, Matt Waller.
An outgoing college president -- Rodney Bennett at the University of Southern Mississippi -- and senior administrators at the University of Alabama and Oklahoma State University have also applied.
Listed candidates as of last Friday include one woman out of 11 applicants currently working at colleges or universities. Not all of the 20 candidates had biographical information readily accessible online, but as few as two are women.
The University of Arkansas System released the names and titles of applicants actively seeking the job as of the July 8 deadline for receiving "best consideration." UA System officials released the list after a request made under the state's public disclosure law.
Nate Hinkel, a spokesman for the UA System, in a statement called it "very likely" that more than 20 candidates will end up being considered for the job, adding that "the active recruiting process will also continue moving forward in identifying a highly qualified, diverse pool of candidates for consideration."
Hinkel referred to the diversity of top hires made at UA System President Donald Bobbitt's recommendation for various UA System colleges and universities. Bobbitt, through Hinkel, declined to comment on the applicant pool so far.
Andrea Silbert, leader of the nonprofit Eos Foundation, said a study done by the foundation published earlier this year found UA among schools needing to take "urgent action" to narrow the gender gap that exists with mostly men in various leadership positions.
UA has never had a woman serve as chancellor or president, and Silbert, when told about the lack of women so far vying to become chancellor, called for those in charge to speak up.
"I'd say the direction needs to come from the system president and board chair to say, 'We're very interested in having gender diversity at the top of our institution,'" Silbert said.
Robinson is the first Black chancellor at UA, with Bobbitt appointing him to the interim chancellor role following the abrupt resignation of Joe Steinmetz last June.
A history professor with UA since 1999, Robinson began Aug. 16 as interim chancellor. Before that, he served as the university's provost and executive vice chancellor for academic and student affairs.
Waller in 2016 became dean of UA's Sam M. Walton College of Business after beginning as interim dean a year earlier. He joined the university in 1994 as a visiting associate professor and has previously served as an interim associate dean for executive education and as chair for UA's Department of Supply Chain Management.
Bennett in 2013 became the first Black president at the University of Southern Mississippi, a public university with about 14,000 students. His last day as president will be Friday, according to a June 30 statement from the school. He previously served as vice president of student affairs at the University of Georgia.
Russell Mumper has been vice president for research and economic engagement at the University of Alabama since January 2019. Before that, he was vice provost for academic affairs at the University of Georgia.
Paul Tikalsky in 2012 became engineering dean at Oklahoma State University. He is a professor of civil and environmental engineering and also a professor of material science and engineering, and before joining Oklahoma State was a department chair at the University of Utah.
Manoj Malhotra in 2017 became dean of the management school at Case Western Reserve University, a private university in Cleveland, Ohio. Before that, he was chair of the management science department in the business school at the University of South Carolina.
Jason Osborne joined Miami University in Ohio as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs in 2019, stepping down from the role June 30. Before that, he was associate provost and graduate school dean at Clemson University.
Daniel Reed is a professor of computational science at the University of Utah, where he served from 2018 through December as senior vice president for academic affairs. He previously worked at the University of Iowa as vice president for research and economic development.
Alan Kaye in November 2019 joined Louisiana State University Health Shreveport, where he's provost, chief academic officer and vice chancellor for academic affairs. He's also a professor in the anaesthesiology and pharmacology departments. He previously served as chair of the anaesthesiology department at LSU Health in New Orleans.
Melissa Gruys in 2016 became dean of the Richard T. Doermer School of Business at what is now Purdue University Fort Wayne, a public university. She previously was chair of management and international business at Wright State University in Ohio.
Kim Needy, chair of the advisory search committee helping Bobbitt, referred to national data from the American Council on Education stating that about three out of every 10 college presidents are women.
"I wish that our pool had a larger percentage of women, but our number doesn't differ significantly from what the ACE data shows. The paucity of women presidents/chancellors is a national concern," Needy said in an email.
Hinkel, the UA System spokesman, in a statement said that Bobbitt has in the past brought forward for Board of Trustees approval "an extremely diverse group of leaders" following searches for top administrators.
"The current chancellor search at our flagship institution will be no different," Hinkel said.
Last year, Bobbitt recommended the hire of Christine Holt to lead the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope-Texarkana. Holt became the first Black woman to lead a public higher-education institution in Arkansas. Bobbitt in 2019 recommended the hire of Terisa Riley as chancellor for the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith.
The Eos Foundation report, however, examined the gender gap that exists in leadership roles at 130 top U.S. research universities. In Arkansas, only UA is considered among that group of schools designated "R1" in what is commonly referred to as the Carnegie Classification, which is based on a university's research activity.
UA ranked 101st out of the 130 schools in what the report called its comprehensive gender index and rankings, with Silbert noting that there's only one woman on the 10-member University of Arkansas Board of Trustees.
The rankings also were based on other data, including the percentage of tenured full professors who are women and the percentage of deans who are women. The report found that out of UA's 314 full professors, 25% were women, and out of the university's nine deans, 44% were women.
"It's not just, 'OK, they have this problem right now. They don't have enough women applicants,'" Silbert said. "It's that they have a systemic problem across multiple categories, of poor representation of women relative to other 'R1' schools," Silbert said.
The Greenwood/Asher & Associates search firm will be paid $225,000 plus 12% for indirect expenses for their role in the search. The agreement with the search firm calls for payment to come from the University of Arkansas Foundation.
Silbert said the search firm "should be focused on getting a fair balance -- I'd say 50% women applying for this job -- so they're the ones who haven't done a good job," though she also said the university's top leaders must do more.
"You have to call and ask the people who might not even be interested and say, 'Hey, let me talk to you about this,'" Silbert said.
Asked for comment, Jan Greenwood with the search firm in an email said "we always make cultural and gender diversity a priority" and referred questions to the university.
The report's ranking included a total of seven of the 14 SEC universities in its category of schools needing to take "urgent action."