MnSCU trustees appoint committee to find new chancellor

The board of trustees of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system has appointed a committee to help find the system's new leader.

James McCormick will retire next summer after serving as MnSCU's chancellor since 2001.

The MnSCU board of trustees has tapped 16 people to help find McCormick's replacement.

The group will be headed by David Olson, president of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and the former chair of the MnSCU board.

A current trustee will serve on the committee, as well as two faculty leaders, two student leaders and two MnSCU college presidents.

A DFL state representative and a Republican state senator will help with the search, as well as a private college board chair, the CEO of a development association, an executive from Best Buy and former Minneapolis mayor Sharon Sayles Belton.

The University of Minnesota is also searching for a replacement for outgoing president Robert Bruininks.

The full list of committee members are:

-- Travis Johnson, president of the Minnesota State College Student Association;

-- Andrew Spaeth, state chair of the Minnesota State University Student Association;

-- Don Larsson, president of the Inter Faculty Organization, which represents faculty at the system's seven state universities;

-- Greg Mulcahy, president of the Minnesota State College Faculty, which represents faculty at the system's 25 community and technical colleges;

-- Shahzad Ahmad, past president of the Minnesota State University Association of Administrative and Service Faculty, which represents administrative and service faculty;

-- Clarence Hightower, trustee and vice chair of the board and chair of the board's Human Resources Committee;

-- Christine Rice, trustee and chair of the board's Academic and Student Affairs Committee;

-- Kevin Kopischke, president of Alexandria Technical and Community College;

-- Edna Mora Szymanski, president of Minnesota State University Moorhead;

-- Carlos Mariani, DFL-St. Paul, state representative and chair of the House K-12 Education Policy and Oversight Committee;

-- Claire Robling, R-Jordan, state senator and ranking minority member of the Senate Higher Education Committee;

-- Sharon Sayles Belton, vice president, community relations and government affairs for Thomson Reuters and former mayor of Minneapolis;

-- Yvonne Cheung Ho, president and CEO of the Metropolitan Economic Development Association;

-- Mark Chronister, board chair, St. Catherine University and board chair of the Minneapolis Foundation; and

-- Paula Prahl, senior vice president of communications, public affairs and corporate responsibility, Best Buy Co., Inc.