As the search process for a new chancellor gets underway, faculty members at University of North Carolina Wilmington are developing a list of qualities that they would like to see in their new leader.

Tuesday morning, the Faculty Senate’s steering committee released its draft list, which was considered by the full Senate at its meeting later in the day. The steering committee’s 13-point outline, when it is revised in accordance with comments from the Faculty Senate, will constitute one input to the search committee, said Gabriel Lugo, a professor of mathematics and president of the group.

A national search is underway to find the school's next head after former chancellor Gary Miller left this summer to take a job as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

Five members of the search committee were slated to attend Tuesday’s Faculty Senate open forum discussion of the criteria, Lugo said.

Lugo described the list as “well thought out” and “forward looking.”

“If you look backward, you trip and fall,” he said. “This list is an opportunity [for the faculty] to continue to demonstrate that we are a strong university with a strong commitment to education.”

The qualities listed in the steering committee’s comprehensive description of an ideal leader range from “a commitment to scholarly values and the diverse mission of a public comprehensive university” to more specific attributes such as “demonstrated record of achieving diversity goals,” “demonstrated ability to secure funding,” “determination to expand and seek increased support for undergraduate and graduate programs” and “commitment to recruiting and retaining the highest quality faculty, staff, students and administrators.”

Also mentioned as desirable are a “collaborative leadership style,” “commitment to open discourse and shared governance” and “open communication style.”

And finally, there are a couple of characteristics that hint at the importance of chemistry: finding a successful candidate who will be a good fit at UNCW, embracing its unique characteristics and aligning with its core values.

“This set of criteria is about the new chancellor, looking for qualities we would like to see in any person in a position of leadership,” Lugo said.

Lugo is also a member of the search committee, a 19-member group whose members were announced Sept. 22 by the university.

“We are moving again into a very important time. The selection of a chancellor is the most important decision the university makes,” he said. “I am honored to be part of the search committee.”

Only three individuals from the search committee for Miller are members of the new search committee, university officials said. The new body is larger than the earlier search committee and is made up of UNCW trustees, faculty, staff, alumni, community members and one representative each of the UNCW Board of Visitors and the UNCW student body.