WittKieffer, the firm that a search committee has tasked with finding the University’s eighth president, will hold a listening session on March 7 to hear student input. The meeting, to be held online from 4 to 5 p.m., comes after the 21-member search committee first met earlier this month.

“WittKieffer will be hosting several listening sessions on understanding what students believe are beneficial qualities and traits of the next president; the challenges and opportunities of the position; and what makes Binghamton an attractive university to the next president,” a University spokesperson wrote to Pipe Dream.

In guidelines for the listening sessions on the presidential search website, WittKieffer said its notes would be categorized into “the agenda for the new president,” “the description of the ideal candidate” and “the main reasons qualified individuals would pursue this role.”

The company added that specific feedback would not be directly attributed and that its representatives would not seek to build consensus but rather look for individual opinions, inviting those who attend to “build on others’ comments or contradict them.”

The student-centered meeting will follow three others: a faculty session from 4 to 5 p.m. on March 5; a staff session from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. on March 6; and a community session from 2 to 3 p.m. on March 7.

Kathryn Grant Madigan, the search committee chair, previously said that the selection of WittKieffer, which also led the search for David Whitmore, who will become the vice president of advancement and executive director of the University Foundation in March, was unanimous.

“I think everybody wants to feel that their perspective is considered as we develop the profile of the kind of person we want to lead the University into the future,” Madigan, who also chairs the BU Council and was on the search committee that found current University President Harvey Stenger in 2011, told Pipe Dream earlier this month.

Stenger announced in October his intention to step down from his position after 13 years at the helm of University administration. The committee’s first step will be to create a profile that includes the ideal qualities of the next president.

“Feedback will be used in the creation of the leadership profile, the principal marketing document that will be shared broadly with potential candidates and with the general public,” the spokesperson said. “It will also serve as criteria that the search committee will use to evaluate the candidates.”

After establishing the profile, the committee will enter a six-to-eight-week “active recruitment” stage, during which a pool of 50 to 100 candidates will narrow to around 10 to 12. After five finalists are determined and forwarded to the University Council, a list of the final three, with detailed strengths and weaknesses, will be sent to SUNY Chancellor John B. King Jr.

King will then meet with SUNY’s Board of Trustees, who will interview all three candidates one final time before King ultimately selects BU’s next president.

The committee will conduct a closed search, in which the names of potential candidates are not disclosed to the public, though Madigan said they may incorporate some hybrid aspects, like students, faculty, staff and community members who commit to confidentiality before reviewing specific finalists.

BU is not the only SUNY center to see change at the highest level of administration. On Feb. 19, King and Merryl H. Tisch, the Board of Trustees chair, announced the selection of Andrea Goldsmith, Princeton University’s dean of engineering and applied science, as Stony Brook University’s seventh president. Stony Brook’s previous president, Maurie D. McInnis, left her post to assume the presidency of Yale University.

Though Stenger has said he will remain as president until a successor is appointed, the committee hopes to have his replacement before the fall 2025 semester.

The listening session will be held from 4 to 5 p.m. on Friday, March 7, at this Zoom link with the password 180221. Those unable to attend can submit feedback on this form.