The coming months at Northern Arizona University are expected to bring additional changes to campus as it continues to adapt to the pandemic alongside the arrival of a new university president.
Anticipated changes were discussed throughout the NAU Faculty Senate meeting Monday afternoon, namely, the selection of José Luis Cruz as NAU’s presidential finalist to replace Rita Cheng.
Faculty did not have any additional information on when the presidential transition will occur, a decision that will be determined by the Arizona Board of Regents during contract negotiations, but expressed their delight in the finalist.
“I am confident that he is poised to restore trust and transparency at NAU,” said NAU Faculty Senate President Gioia Woods. “I am certain he will be a powerful advocate for us among our sister institutions, among the regents and in the state context. I know, from his demonstrable experience, that he will work to ensure diversity, equity and inclusion across all campus domains.”
NAU theatre professor Kate Ellis served on the presidential search committee and explained Monday that between January and early February, it was able to narrow the prospects for the job from 10 individuals to three. One of the three then asked to be removed from the running and the remaining two were announced to the public as candidates for the position.
The search was quick because, as recommended by the search firm brought on for the process, the team did not want to lose its top prospects to another job offer — and it successfully did not, Ellis said.
“I can guarantee and promise you that I was 100% behind both of these candidates, as was the rest of the committee,” Ellis said.
Like the decision on the new president’s start date, other upcoming university plans remain to be announced, including those for spring commencement, summer operations and the fall semester.
In her update to the senate Monday, Cheng said a decision will be made soon on whether this semester’s commencement ceremony will take place in person or virtually, though virtual seems more likely because of the unpredictable weather in Flagstaff in late April, when the semester ends. This was moved up a week from previous years due to the cancellation of spring break.
“We wanted to make sure that we hold off on that as long as is appropriate to make sure that we haven’t skipped over some COVID-safe ways that we could have some gatherings for that very special event,” Cheng said.
She said she has charged a task force group to begin looking at on-campus plans for the summer — such as camps, meetings and conferences — to search for ways to host some events in a COVID-safe environment. These events are important for university revenue and recruitment, Cheng explained.
Plans for the fall are also still to be determined, but Cheng said she is optimistic that by then most classes should be able to return to in-person instruction.
“We’re still looking at timelines for student vaccinations, and variants of the virus, of course, are also at play. So this is an ongoing area of discussion, but I think we have to plan for in-person but also have some contingency planning if there are things that we’re not aware of today,” she said.
When faculty asked about fall enrollment, Cheng said it is too early to tell; however, housing deposits are currently down and even though undergraduate freshmen applications are up, Cheng said she has concerns about how the decline in community college enrollment could affect NAU’s number of transfer students.