The search for Binghamton University’s next president will continue — now a year after former University President Lois DeFleur’s retirement — when the reshuffled Presidential Search Committee of the Binghamton University Council meets for the first time on July 6.

This meeting comes after SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher rejected the two final candidates that the committee recommended for president of the University last March. The committee had narrowed down a candidate pool of hundreds during an eight-month-long search process.

After this rejection, Zimpher appointed James Orband ‘81 to co-chair the committee with Search Committee Chair Kathryn Madigan. Orband is a member of the BU Council, which oversees the Search Committee.

“I was a trustee on the Presidential Search Committee for Broome Community College in 2009, so I have been through this before. Kate and I also work very well together,” Orband said.

Orband’s appointment was not the only Committee personnel adjustment that came with the presidential search’s reset.

Committee members Dawnie Steadman and Tim Perry have resigned and will be replaced by Patrick Regan, BU political science professor, and Zu-yan Chen, Asian and Asian American studies professor and director of the Confucius Institute of Chinese Opera. They were elected by the Faculty Senate.

James Stehil, a member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors and native of the Southern Tier, will take up the the position of alumni representative.

C. Peter Magrath will oversee the first committee meeting to provide guidance and has designated his chief of staff, professor Terrence Deak, to oversee future meetings.

“The Chancellor has requested that the president designate a senior member of his administration to work closely with Search Committee and the SUNY senior staff,” Madigan said. “We are delighted that [Deak] will be joining us at the meeting.”

Russell Reynolds Associates, a nationally recognized search firm that, according to Orband, has a proven track record of managing successful presidential searches, has been hired. They will replace the Committee’s previous executive search firm, Isaacson, Miller.

Madigan said she is determined that the search will proceed expeditiously. The search efforts rely, in part, on the participation of BU students and faculty to give their feedback and opinions. Both co-chairs stress the importance of this feedback as instrumental in their final decision.

“We very carefully consider all feedback as it is important for students to give whatever they can,” Madigan said.

More information on the search is available at www2.binghamton.edu/presidential-search.