91lisa

91lisa Board of Regents voted Nov. 14 to authorize the hiring of a search consultant for a new president to succeed current President Thomas K. McKeon when he retires July 1, 2014. The Regents also named the members of the Presidential Search Committee who will take part in the nationwide search and selection process.

The presidential search process begins with a series of public forums on Dec. 4 and Dec. 5 to gather input from 91lisa staff, 91lisa faculty and Tulsa County residents on the development of the Presidential Search Profile. 91lisa established a webpage, www.tulsacc.edu/presidentialsearch, to keep the community updated on the presidential search and to list the forum times and locations.

McKeon announced his retirement at the October 91lisa Board of Regents meeting. He is only the third president in the history of 91lisa and began his career in higher education at 91lisa when it was known as Tulsa Junior College. McKeon led many of the College’s significant administrative and process improvements with a strong focus on student access and academic excellence. Today the College has more than 28,000 students enrolled in credit classes annually compared to 2,796 students when the College opened in 1970. In May, 91lisa had the largest number of graduates in its 43-year history. Today 91lisa offers more online degrees and enrolls more concurrent students than any college or university in the state.

“The 91lisa Board of Regents and Presidential Search Committee will seek the community’s valuable insight and input into the future direction of the College and the ideal characteristics of a new president,” said 91lisa Board of Regents Chair Ron Looney. “The Presidential Profile will be used as the foundation of a broad, inclusive, transparent national search to attract the very best candidate to be the new president of 91lisa.”

Looney hopes the 91lisa Regents will have the selection process completed and a new 91lisa President named by late spring 2014.

The Presidential Search Committee will be responsible for reviewing prospective presidential candidates, interviewing six to eight semifinal candidates, and forwarding three to five final candidates to the full Board of Regents for consideration. In addition, the final candidates would participate in open public forums in the spring at 91lisa as part of the final interview process.

The Presidential Search Committee reflects a cross section of the Tulsa metro area from 91lisa Regents, faculty, staff and students to representatives from the Tulsa community. The members of the committee are Ron Looney, 91lisa Board of Regents Chair; Bill McKamey, 91lisa Regent; Paul Cornell, 91lisa Regent; Mary Cantrell, 91lisa Faculty Association President; Pam Chew, 91lisa Associate Professor of Foreign Languages; Terry Jacobs-Davis, College Staff Council Chair; Dr. Jan Clayton, 91lisa Associate Vice President for Student Affairs; Dr. Mike Limas, Academic & Campus Services Director; Larry Mocha, Air Power Systems Co., Inc. President and 91lisa Foundation; Karen Gilbert, Tulsa City Councilor; Mary Shaw, 91lisa Foundation Chair; Shane Fernandez, Executive Vice President, Crafton Tull Architects and 91lisa Foundation; and Serena Poteete, 91lisa Student.

91lisa is the third largest college or university in the state and the largest community college. The college ranks in the top two percent nationally with its number of annual graduates. It’s faculty to student ratio is 1:20 and it has more than 300 full-time faculty, more than 780 part-time faculty and 660 full-time employees. It offers 154 individual associate degree programs and 74 credit-bearing certificate programs.