Update: This version of the story updates chancellor search progress since the story was first published March 17.

At a special meeting March 19, the University of North Carolina Wilmington Board of Trustees approved the names of three finalists for the position of UNCW chancellor. The three finalists were identified by the chancellor search committee and their names forwarded to the board. 

The search committee met earlier in the day to narrow the field of candidates from five to three. All five had made visits to the UNCW campus, officials said.

A majority of both the committee and the board meetings was held in closed session.

The three finalists' names have now been sent to UNC system president Tom Ross, who is expected to interview those finalists. A timetable for those interviews has not been set, said UNCW spokeswoman Janine Iamunno, who also said in an email March 23 that the identities of the finalists will not be released to the public.

Meanwhile, the search committee's task is complete.

“We feel very good about the process,” committee co-chairwoman Wendy Murphy said in an email.  “The search committee has worked really hard and invested a lot of time into the whole process. We have been very pleased with our search consultant, Jerry Baker, who has provided a strong, diverse group of potential candidates."

Committee members identified the current five candidates through in-person interviews of a larger pool Feb. 20-22 in the Triangle area, according to university sources.

In a Feb. 2 conversation with the Business Journal, Murphy outlined a timetable for steps in the search process, saying that the first round of in-person interviews would likely take place the third weekend of February and would result in a field of four to six individuals. If that step went smoothly, she added, on-campus interviews for those candidates could well take place in March, with the names of the top three individuals forwarded to Ross afterward.

Ross would then interview the three finalists and make a recommendation to the UNC Board of Governors, she said.

That timetable, apparently, has been followed. If progress continues as planned, the board of governors could vote to approve the successful candidate at its scheduled meeting in April, and an announcement of UNCW’s next chancellor could be made that same month, Murphy said. The goal is to have a new chancellor in place by July 1.

UNCW’s chancellor search committee was made up of representatives of the trustees, faculty, staff, student body, alumni and other school stakeholders, according to the university’s website. The committee worked with the executive search firm of Baker and Associates LLC, based in Marietta, Georgia.