October 27: A Message from the Board Chair

TO: SJU Community
FROM: James M. Norris ’85, Chair, Board of Trustees
RE: A Message from the Board Chair
DATE: October 27, 2022 at 2:50 p.m.

Dear Members of the SJU Community,

I am pleased to share with you the Presidential Search Prospectus, which will serve as an important tool during the search process for the 29th president of Saint Joseph's University. Our search firm, Storbeck Search, will actively use this to assist in recruiting highly qualified candidates and it will be accessible on the University’s presidential search website as well as on Storbeck’s website.

This document was developed following numerous open forums conducted both in person and via Zoom by our search firm and members of the Search Committee. These forums included members of the St. Joe’s faculty, staff, students, the Jesuit community, alumni, the Presidential Search Committee and the Board of Trustees.

I would like to express my gratitude to all those who participated in the open forums. Your contributions enabled us to create a rich document, which I believe highlights many of Saint Joseph’s points of pride and is also forthcoming about the challenges we, and many other institutions across the country, face today. I am excited for candidates to have the opportunity to get to know Saint Joseph's through this compelling document.

As I’ve mentioned previously, it is my intent to share with you as much information as I can, with the caveat that confidentiality will be critical to successfully attracting a candidate. It is an especially exciting time in the long history of our University, and we have every reason to believe that we will have a robust, diverse pool of candidates for the role.

The Search Committee is excited to begin the next phase of the process. We kicked off this phase with an implicit bias training session conducted by Storbeck Search. We will now turn our attention to the formal process of evaluating potential candidates and developing a preliminary list of candidates to be interviewed.

As a reminder, Storbeck Search is accepting applicants and recommendations. You can submit an application or make a recommendation by emailing SJUPresident@storbecksearch.com.

Sincerely,

Jim Norris signature

James M. Norris ’85
Chair, Board of Trustees