On Tuesday, September 10th, Koya Leadership Partners visited Champlain College to start the search for the college’s new president. Members of the recruiting team, as well as Board of Trustee members, sat down for an hour in Fireside Lounge to meet students to start building an understanding of who would be a good fit.

The meeting started out with introductions of each member and established the following schedule for finding a new president; over the next 4-5 weeks the recruiting team will be talking with various parts of Champlain College to get a feel for the community. While this recruiting team is talking to community members, they highly encourage students to fill out the Presidential Search Online Survey, which was sent to students via email on September 4th. This survey will stay open until September 27th for students to give as much information as they want. Individual students can submit the survey multiple times if they want to give updated information as the month progresses!

After introductions and initial information, the floor was open to all students, including anyone passing by, who wanted to introduce themselves and give information about Champlain College. Students from various majors offered their own perspectives listing what they liked and what could be improved on campus.

Many students mentioned how much they liked Champlain College’s upside-down curriculum. In particular, students appreciated getting experience in their major the first year so they could decide if their future life’s work was suited for them. Students also seemed to appreciate the small, niche communities people have found on campus.

The list of improvements was much broader, with concerns about Champlain’s environmental sustainability, lack of gender-neutral bathrooms across campus, a lack of transparency in internal operations, funding to find prospective international students, lack of accessibility, a lack of focus on external, national events, and issues in communication, social justice, diversity and inclusion.

Students also got to tell their stories of how they chose this campus, and their journey thus far.

On October 11th, the recruiting members will be prepared to talk to the Board of Trustees about their findings. After the Board of Trustees meeting, ten candidates will be picked to potentially fill the role at Champlain College. The pool of ten candidates will be narrowed down to three,who will visit campus in February. During their visits, there will be opportunities for students to meet the candidates and ask them questions. The college aims to announce the new president of Champlain College in March.

The meeting concluded by asking those in attendance to continue this conversation via survey and email. 

Students are encouraged to email [email protected] with any questions/comments/critiques/concerns about the search process.