Amy B. Hietapelto // umn.edu

Students, administrators screen candidates to replace Elrod

By: Claire McKenna 

Staff-Writer

The search for the next IU South Bend chancellor continues as the candidates have been narrowed down to three. The week of Dec. 2, the candidates spoke at town halls, presenting themselves to students, faculty, staff and administrators. After giving insight about their former roles in education, there was time for questions and discussion. 

Attendees wanted to know about what each candidate was like personally, how they planned on bringing their experience from bigger schools to IU South Bend and their thoughts on the political climate surrounding the future of education.  

Although the final decision will be made by IU President Pamela Whitten, IU South Bend has formed a Search and Screen committee to help narrow down the candidates. They went through about 70 candidate applications, from which they chose 10, then invited the top four to IU South Bend for town halls. There are now three candidates, as an unnamed applicant dropped out for personal reasons.

There are around ten members on the Search and Screen committee, including Student Government Association President Chloe Garner. 

Garner was asked over the summer to be part of the committee, to which she said she happily agreed, excited to be part of something so important. She has engaged with each candidate, attending breakfast meetings and serving as a tour guide for some. She said she has tried to make sure that student interest is being heard and accounted for. 

“The hardest part is when they ask me, ‘what’s the biggest problem students face on campus,’ because there are so many different groups of students that different issues,” Garner said. “I try to focus on things that impacts all students, like dining. Because I talk with so many staff and faculty, I can see what will actually be a student concern.” 

She said she also liked to make encouraging comments in an effort to improve student engagement and community for the future chancellor. 

“Sometimes it’ll be asked, ‘what do students want to see in the chancellor?’, and based on conversations I have had with other students I’ll say, ‘we would love for them to go to diverse events, we would love for them to go to the CUBE,’” Garner said. “That’s my best approach, because I don’t know every student personally, but these new centers are put on campus for students, the chancellor should be involved with that.” 

After each town hall, attendees were also encouraged to fill out an anonymous survey on their thoughts about the candidate, their strengths and weaknesses and whether they would be a good fit for IU South Bend. The surveys closed on Dec. 9. 

Chancellor Susan Elrod, retiring later this month, looked back on her achievements and reflected on her feelings and plans for her retirement in an interview with Inside INdiana Business.  

“It’s bittersweet. I am so proud of what I was able to do with everyone at IU South Bend and in the communities of South Bend and Elkhart. But family calls out west; I’m just too far away from aging parents,” Elrod explained. “I’m just grateful for the support I received, for the engagement and collaboration that everybody showed me. What it tells me is that this community loves IU South Bend and wants to see it succeed. I know that will be true for the next chancellor that comes on board as well. So I just want to say thank you to everybody. I’m very grateful.” 

Although candidate feedback surveys are now closed, students can find the Curricula Vitae for each candidate by scanning the QR code.