SLIPPERY ROCK — As the search for a new top administrator at Slippery Rock University continues, the school’s search committee has pared-down the number of candidates to nine.

SRU said Thursday that the Council of Trustees Presidential Search Committee started with 75 candidates to succeed retired university President Cheryl Norton.

“The pool of candidates was extremely impressive,” said Jeffrey Smith, a council of trustees member and one of three board representatives on the presidential search committee.

Smith said he was surprised by how quickly members of the search committee agreed upon a final pool of candidates for the position.

The committee includes board members, university employees and faculty, students and alumni, as well as at-large members.

The school said that of the 75 applicants for the position, 76 percent were male and 32 percent were “underrepresented minorities.” Smith said applications came from sitting deans, provosts and presidents of institutions of higher learning, as well as leaders of foundations and associations.

After winnowing the pool to a final nine candidates, Smith said, the search committee will now begin in-person interviews with the applicants, and will pare the group to four or five candidates within “the next few weeks.

That group of candidates will then be invited to SRU to be interviewed by university stakeholders on the week of Sept. 25.

After the search committee has gathered input from those interviews it will recommend two candidates to the SRU Council of Trustees. Those candidates would have to be approved by the council — likely at the group’s quarterly meeting in October, Smith said — before the two finalists would be sent to the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education’s board of governors, which will interview the candidates and ultimately select SRU’s next president.

The school has said it hopes to have a new president in place by January.