MSU hires firm to lead search for new president, says it will hold listening sessions

EAST LANSING — Michigan State University officials said the school has hired a national firm with previous MSU experience to lead its search for a new president and will hold a series of virtual forums this month to gather input about what the community wants in a new leader.

Boston, Massachusetts-based Isaacson, Miller will direct the search to replace Samuel Stanley Jr., who resigned last fall after some members of the school's governing board pressured him to leave before his contract expired in 2024, MSU said in a news release on Thursday.

He was the third president at MSU to be forced out since the Larry Nassar scandal.

After Stanley resigned, then-Provost Teresa Woodruff was appointed to lead the university on an interim basis.

"The MSU Board of Trustees is committed to a thorough search to find the best qualified person to lead our prestigious university," Trustee Dennis Denno, who chairs the presidential search committee, said in a news release. "Our presidential search committee will represent a broad array of individuals who reflect voices from every corner of our state and country, and I look forward to Spartans telling us what they want in their next president."

Isaacson, Miller has more than 40 years of experience and devotes more than half of its work to college and university executive searches, MSU said.

MSU has used the firm to find candidates in the past, and the company is now leading the university's search for a vice president for civil rights and Title IX education and compliance. The firm's executive committee chairman, John Isaacson, offered pro-bono assistance to the MSU board as it prepared for its search, Trustee Dianne Byrum said previously.

Board of Trustees chairwoman Rema Vassar last week declined to release the cost of the contract with Isaacson, Miller to the State Journal last week or disclose how long the search might take. MSU hired the firm at a base fee of $270,000, according to Trustee Dennis Denno, who is chair of the presidential search committee.

Denno said the contract with Isaacson, Miller is comparable to the contract the University of Michigan agreed to in the search that led to the hiring of U-M President Santa Ono. U-M agreed to pay the firm an amount equal to 28% of the first-year salary of the new president. Additionally, the contract includes a base layer of $850,000 to determine payment schedules, $35,000 for travel expenses and a 12% fee for administrative costs.

MSU said it has scheduled six "virtual open forums" from April 14-28 for the campus community to give their views on what qualities they would like to see in a new university president. Other listening sessions for "various stakeholder groups" are being planned, the school said.

Denno, speaking on his own behalf, said he would like to see a president who is capable of managing a large and complex organization and who understands the midwest.

"Somebody that can be transformative and innovative and somebody who is excited about bragging about all of the incredible things we do at Michigan State University," he said.

Isaacson, Miller "successfully develops diverse and highly skilled university leadership candidate pools" and in 2022 found women in nearly 60% of its higher education placements, and persons of color in 37% of those placements, MSU officials said.

Stanley left MSU in early November, saying he had lost confidence in the trustees. Trustees had pressured him to resign before his contract expired in 2024, in part over his handling of Title IX issues. Stanley had objected to the board's investigation.

MSU hired Storbeck/Pimentel & Associates in September 2018 to conduct a president search to find a replacement for Lou Anna Simon, who resigned amid the Nassar scandal. That search process included more than 30 listening sessions across campus, with two of those sessions open to the public, an MSU official said.

John Engler, a former Michigan governor, was appointed interim president after Simon's departure, but he resigned after he was slammed for his handling of the Nassar fallout, including insensitive comments about Nassar survivors.

The Detroit Free Press contributed to this report.

Contact Ken Palmer at kpalmer@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @KBPalm_lsj. Contact Mark Johnson at majohnson2@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ByMarkJohnson.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: MSU hires firm to lead search for new president