The Georgia Board of Regents met Monday and plans to meet again Tuesday to discuss the hiring searches for two of the state’s historically Black universities: Albany State and Savannah State.
The meetings are for the board to “discuss and deliberate” on the searches and are closed to the public. No official actions will be taken in either of the closed sessions, according to the agenda.
In all, four of Georgia’s 10 historically Black colleges and universities are on the hunt for new presidents to lead their institutions. One of those HBCUs, Morehouse College, has said it intends to announce a final candidate this spring. Morehouse’s president, David A. Thomas, announced in July he will retire at the end of this academic year.
After publishing the position profile Jan. 2, Morehouse — a private, all-male school — says candidate interviews are underway and that it is on track to name its 13th president by April.
The timeline is less certain for Spelman College, Albany State and Savannah State.
Rosalind “Roz” Brewer assumed day-to-day duties as Spelman’s interim president in October, when then-President Dr. Helene Gayle took a personal leave of absence. Gayle resigned the following month — the school declined to say why Gayle took the leave of absence — with Brewer remaining in the interim role as the all-women’s college prepared to launch a national search for its new president.
Credit: Atlanta Falcons
Credit: Atlanta Falcons
“We will update the community once we have finalized the path forward for identifying and selecting our next president,” Board of Trustees Chair Lovette T. Russell wrote in a November letter announcing the news.
Months later, the nation’s top-rated historically Black college has not released details on potential next steps, saying it has no update on when that presidential search will begin. As private institutions, decisions for Morehouse and Spelman, both located in Atlanta, will have to come from each of their respective Board of Trustees.
But for Albany State and Savannah State, those decisions will be made by the University System of Georgia and its governing Board of Regents. When those decisions will be made is unclear.
“The searches for both institutions are ongoing,” University System of Georgia spokesperson Kristina Torres said.
Lawrence M. Drake II has served as the interim president of ASU since July, replacing Marion Ross Fedrick. Fedrick served as Albany State president since 2018 before joining Georgia State University last year as executive vice president for administration. Fedrick is also the university system’s senior adviser for the state’s three public historically Black universities.
Kimberly Ballard-Washington resigned from Savannah State in 2023, and Cynthia Robinson Alexander took over in an interim capacity.
In June of last year, the Board of Regents named members to the presidential search committees for both Albany State and Savannah State. Each committee was tasked with guiding the first stage of the search process for each of their respective schools. Additionally, both colleges retained consultant group AGB Search, and the presidential positions for each school are listed on the AGB Search website.
Albany State held a listening session on campus Aug. 28. Students, faculty, alumni and others associated with the southwest Georgia school were invited to participate so AGB could “ascertain the broadest possible input to the search.” Savannah State, located in southeast Georgia, did the same the following day.
“The goal of these listening sessions is to hear from you about the qualities and qualifications that you seek in the next president,” reads the SSU website.
At the conclusion of each presidential search committee’s work, they will forward the credentials of three to five unranked candidates to the Board of Regents for consideration.
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