Maynard

SLIPPERY ROCK — The second candidate for the presidency at Slippery Rock University spoke Friday to the SRU community at an open forum.

C. Jack Maynard said his experience with creating successful students, budgeting, leadership and university advancement has prepared him for the role of the president.

“I think my experiences are a great fit for this institution,” Maynard said.

Maynard is the provost at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Ind. He has been at the university since 2001. He hopes to replace former SRU President Robert Smith, who has retired.

If hired, he said his priorities during his first year would be to get to know the campus, to see where SRU is heading and to work on university fund-raising.

He said fundraising is important because of decreases in state funding to schools.

“We have to rely on different types of financial support than we have,” Maynard said.

He said he hopes to build relationships with donors and to open up new sources of funding. He also would like to look into the possibility of starting a capital campaign for funds.

“I would hope to at least explore that,” Maynard said.

To get to know the campus community, he said he would like to have meetings over 6 to 8 months with a variety of people.

He said he wants to maintain SRU’s high quality education. Until he gets to know SRU better, he did not want to say if he would make any changes.

“My vision is to keep the institution’s reputation as high as it is,” Maynard said.

He also said he had experience in increasing diversity. At Indiana State, he has helped start a minority scholars day to attract minority professors.

That effort brought 22 professors to the school, which ended up hiring seven minority professors. Maynard said this was more than the school had hired over the few years prior.

When asked about second languages, he said it is important to learn a second language, but said it would not be feasible to require every student to take a second language.

A 15-member presidential search committee will narrow the list of six applicants to three and will forward those names to the state system board of governors, who will make the final decision.

The next candidate, Joe Bertolino, is the vice president for enrollment management and student affairs, executive assistant to the president and chair of the department of student personnel at Queens College/City University of New York.

His public forum will be from 2:30 to 3:15 p.m. Tuesday at the Russell Wright Alumni House.

Another candidate, Cheryl Norton, who had been president of Southern Connecticut State University, visited SRU on Tuesday.