Search Process

The College Council Chair appoints the search committee, with the Council Chair typically serving as chair of the search. The Council chair asks campus and community groups, including the campus governance leader, to submit recommendations for positions on the search committee other than the six faculty positions, which are elected.

View the list of search committee members.

As required in the SUNY Search Guidelines, a search firm was selected to assist in the presidential search process. The College Council had the option to forgo a full RFP process and instead hire a firm to provide a limited set of recruiting services, thus creating cost savings for the campus.

Farmingdale State College retained RPA, Inc. to assist with the presidential search. RPA Inc. is a nationally recognized comprehensive executive search and consulting firm, founded in 1988. With over three decades of service to higher education, the firm has established a record of success in recruitment and search facilitation across all levels of senior administration. RPA Inc. is dedicated to the philosophy that a recruitment effort is an opportunity to positively impact the future of an institution. The firm's guiding objective is to develop a full understanding of each institution it serves and to identify and seek out professionals whose skill sets, values, and personal characteristics most closely match the needs and values of the institution. RPA also brings deep experience with searches in the SUNY system. The RPA team is led by Dana John Cohick, the president of RPA Inc.

The search firm will work with the search committee and Zulaika Rodriguez, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Presidential Searches in the Chancellor’s office to develop the job description, the required and preferred qualifications for the position, as well as the campus prospectus that describes the college, including its current strengths, opportunities, and challenges and information about the SUNY system. The firm then places advertisements and conducts active outreach nationally to recruit a large, talented and diverse pool of qualified candidates to be considered by the committee.

Semi-Finalists Interviews

Once the search committee selects the semi-finalists, the Chancellor’s office will conduct extensive background interviews on pre-qualified applicants to find the best candidates to serve the college and its needs. The search committee will review the pool and their materials and ultimately select 8–12 candidates who will be interviewed virtually.

On-Campus Interviews

From this group, five finalists will be selected and invited to campus to interview with a variety of stakeholder groups under the representational model.

During a representational search, members of the College Council and other designated members of the FSC campus community will be invited to meet with the semifinalist candidates under strict rules of confidentiality, which is vital to this model to retain the selected candidates. The structure and makeup of the Presidential Search Committee ensures that all areas of the university have “a voice” in the process.

The Presidential Search Committee and a selection of other campus constituents will confidentially meet with the finalists. The Presidential Search Committee will review feedback from the final interviews, as well as feedback from references, and together will weigh the merits of each of the finalists. Based on this review process, the College Council will then vote to recommend three finalists to the Chancellor and the SUNY Board of Trustees.

The Chancellor’s Office will work with the search committee to conduct extensive background checks and references on all finalists.

The finalists are evaluated and all acceptable candidates are presented, with evaluations from the search committee, first to the College Council, and then upon approval of the College Council, to the Chancellor. At least three acceptable finalist candidates are presented to the Chancellor. The names of the finalist candidates are sent to the Chancellor unranked — hence leaving the ultimate decision to the Chancellor.

The schedule and duration of the search will be determined by the Council Chair and the Chancellor’s office. Searches typically take several months to complete.

The Chancellor interviews the candidates. Candidates are asked to provide a presentation to the Chancellor’s Executive Leadership team followed by Q&A, which is recorded for the Trustees to review as part of their materials.

The Chancellor makes a recommendation to the Board of Trustees.  A smaller subgroup of the Board interviews the candidate.  Upon completion and approval by the subcommittee, the final candidate will be voted on by the Full Board of Trustees.

The search firm and the search committee welcome your thoughts on the search. If you wish to share your views or have any questions on process, please email Zulaika.Rodriguez@suny.edu. Please submit all nominations and applications directly to RPA.