The Georgia Southern Search and Screen Committee held its second Statesboro listening session for the presidential search Thursday night.

The session allowed members of the Statesboro community to voice their opinions on what qualities the next GS president should have.

Committee Chair Dustin Anderson, Ph.D., began the session by encouraging everyone to fill out the presidential survey online to help the committee with the search process.

Community’s opinions

Former Statesboro Mayor Jan Moore said the next president should be prepared to remain president for several years.

“I don’t know that this university can afford another short-timer,” Moore said. “If we’re at this critical point, as critical as it appears to be, we need to be very intentional about trying to get a president that we feel very comfortable will be here for seven, eight, maybe 10 years. We’ve had them in the past.”

GS alumnus Russ Taulbee said he wants a leader and a visionary to help the university grow.

“We’re going to need someone that’s going to be a visionary and be able to truly make [Georgia Southern] a lead campus of southeast Georgia,” Taulbee said.

Kenneth Cochrum, senior civil engineering major, said he wants the next president to be open to keeping the culture of GS but be willing to expand it as well.

“The moment you want to try to stay stagnant in a culture is the moment you lose your potential of growth,” Cochrum said.

Cochrum also wants the next president to be willing to connect with the GS community by means of marketing and advertisement.

“I believe marketing is such a huge thing,” Cochrum said. “When I was in Atlanta, I didn’t know anything about Georgia Southern besides the people who had already been accepted.”

What’s next

Anderson said the next step in the presidential search process will be gathering information from both the presidential survey and the listening sessions.

“We’ll start reviewing those after our deadline closes,” Anderson said. “What the committee will do is get all our applications in and select a short list [of candidates] that we’ll interview face-to-face.”

The last day for candidates to apply is Nov. 9.

For more information on the presidential search process, click here.

Emma Smith, The George-Anne News Editor, ganewsed@georgiasouthern.edu