Eastern Illinois University's Board of Trustees has voted to postpone its search for a new president and will offer a two-year extended contract to Interim President Louis V. Hencken.
Under the terms of the contract, the 59-year-old, who has served as EIU's president for the past two-plus years, will have the interim removed from his title and his contract extended through June 30, 2006. Hencken has served as Eastern's top administrator since Aug. 1, 2001, when President Carol D. Surles resigned due to health reasons.
"I am honored and pleased that Eastern's Board of Trustees has enough confidence in me to make the offer," Hencken said. "I vow to the EIU community that I will work as hard, if not harder, for the remainder of my tenure to assure this institution's continued success."
Eastern conducted a nationwide search, beginning in the fall of 2001, but the outcome was unsuccessful. The search was scheduled to resume this semester.
However, per the request of BOT Chair Nate Anderson, a series of public meetings took place three weeks ago between university and community constituencies and James Appleberry, a search consultant working alongside Eastern's Presidential Search Advisory Committee. Appleberry was asked to compile the information he collected from these meetings - designed to determine the type of president EIU needed - and report back to the board.
What he heard, Appleberry said, were 1) positive comments about the stability of the senior leadership team on campus, 2) positive comments about the team approach to leadership, attributed to Hencken's style of leadership, and 3) positive comments regarding Hencken's relationship with the state's leadership, especially in this time of state budget reduction.
Concern was voiced as to the wisdom of seeking a new president before state revenues stabilized and while Eastern was in the midst of preparing for its 10-year accreditation review.
Anderson and trustees Betsy Mitchell and Bill Davidson, both of whom serve on the Presidential Search Advisory Committee, met with a "spirited" Faculty Senate prior to Tuesday's board meeting and heard from most of the senators.
"Nearly all of the comments were positive about Lou," Anderson said. "Clearly, the concern of the Faculty Senate is over the process of selecting a president for the university.
"My pledge to EIU is that when this process resumes, we (the Board of Trustees) will revise the process to have greater input by all."
Meanwhile, Hencken said he will forge ahead with the same nine goals he presented a year ago:
"I know up front that it's going to be a difficult budget year," Hencken said. "I plan on spending a little more time in going out and seeing donors and trying to increase fund-raising."
He also plans to see that the appropriate number of quality classes is offered each semester so that Eastern students can continue to enroll in the courses they need and want in order to graduate within a four-year time period. And he would like to see an increase in the number of faculty teaching at EIU. Currently, there are 30-plus searches underway for tenure-track faculty for the 2004-2005 school year.
"The two main principles which have guided me thus far as president have been to maintain the academic quality of the institution and to ensure classes are available so that students can graduate in a timely fashion," Hencken said. "Having additional faculty would, in my opinion, work toward achieving those goals."
Hencken, who has served Eastern in a variety of administrative positions for nearly 40 years, began his career here in student affairs as a graduate assistant. He advanced through the housing ranks as a counselor and both assistant and associate director prior to be selected director in 1975.
In 1989, he was named associate vice president for student affairs, assuming responsibility for three new student affairs areas besides housing.
His duties continued to expand in 1992 when he was named vice president for student affairs with responsibility for 19 student affairs areas employing 550 civil service and administrative employees and more than 1,500 student employees and a combined operating budget of $50 million.
Hencken has served as president of the Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center board of directors for the past five years, and has also served on the Credit Union I board of directors.
He and his wife, Mary Kay, a retired business education teacher at Charleston High School, reside in Charleston.
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