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To: Members of the Clark community On Wednesday, John Bassett announced his plans to become president of Heritage College in Toppenish, WA. The trustees and the entire Clark family congratulate him on his exciting new assignment at a unique and pioneering institution. He will bring his commitment to consensus-building and collaboration to this job along with his passion to provide high quality education to all members of our community. Heritage College will be well served. John and Kay are wonderful ambassadors for Clark and active contributors to the Worcester business, cultural, and charitable communities. They will be greatly missed locally but will forever remain part of our Clark Family. We are fortunate John will be with us through the rest of this academic year and we will have plenty of time over the next several months to celebrate his accomplished tenure and to say our farewells to the Bassetts. John’s ample notice gives us the opportunity to embark on a deliberate and inclusive presidential search process. The Board intends to use the next few months to our advantage making sure we select not only an excellent candidate, but one who will have broad support from all of us to take on the challenges now faced by higher education institutions. A board advisory workgroup held meetings in October with faculty leaders to solicit input into the process. At the recent meeting in October, the Board of Trustees authorized the formation of a search committee. We will be conducting forums around the nation and on campus to engage the Clark community in a discussion about the priorities of the University and the required attributes of our leadership. Ten Leadership Priority Forums are scheduled to be held across the country during the month of November bringing together alumni, donors, parents and friends of Clark with members of the faculty, administration and the Board. Similar forums will also be held at Clark with students, faculty and staff and we will be providing details about those over the next few days. We will collect and synthesize the comments, recommendations and insights gathered from these forums and report the highlights and key themes to all participants in December. We will use the input from these forums to inform our assessment of presidential candidates. This is an important time of transition for our University. A time for active, authentic and candid conversations about our challenges as well as our ambitious vision for the future. I welcome your continued feedback.
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