The Southern Arkansas University Board of Trustees Thursday selected three presidential candidates to be interviewed following recommendations from the presidential search committee.
The three applicants include Trey Berry, Ph.D., Phillip Marc Wilson, Ed.D., and Cornelius Wooten, Ph.D. The SAU Office of Human Resources will schedule the interviews at the earliest convenience.
O.A. Franks stepped in to serve as chair of the SAU Board of Trustees, as former Chair William “Bill” Stringfellow passed away from heart complications on December 13, 2014. Stringfellow also headed up the SAU presidential search committee.
“We want to thank the search committee for all of the endless work its members performed, and especially to Bill Stringfellow,” said Franks at the onset of the meeting. “He loved doing it and was such a wonderful asset to the University.”
Of the three applicants to be interviewed, two are from Arkansas. Berry is presently serving as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at SAU. Wilson currently serves as President of Rich Mountain Community College in Mena, Arkansas. Wooten is the Vice President for Administration and Finance at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Current SAU System President Dr. David Rankin will retire at the end of this academic year on June 30. Rankin has served SAU for 45 years, and the past 13 as president. In 2002, he set forth with his ambitious “Blue and Gold Vision,” SAU’s first capital campaign. He has almost completed that vision with numerous campus capital projects completed, totaling more than $100 million. The most recent project, the $4.4 million SAU Story Arena and Farmers Bank Reception Center, opened this spring.
