Dean Humphrey interviewing for position at Slippery Rock University

Pitt Vice Provost and Dean of Students Kathy Humphrey could move less than an hour away for a… Pitt Vice Provost and Dean of Students Kathy Humphrey could move less than an hour away for a presidential position at another Pennsylvania university.

Humphrey, who is in her seventh year at Pitt, is currently in the interview process for the position of president at Slippery Rock University.

Karl Schwab, a spokesman for SRU, said that Humphrey is one of six candidates being considered for the position. The school hopes to have the interview process completed and the new president chosen by late spring or early summer.

Pitt’s Student Affairs spokesman Shawn Ahearn said in an email that Humphrey remains “passionately committed to Pitt” and that at this early stage in SRU’s selection process, further comment would be premature.

Schwab said SRU’s search for a president is “a long and involved process in order to find the best-qualified person.”

He said the search began with an advertisement for the open position in various news outlets and a nationwide search by an outside headhunting company after Robert Smith, who’s served as the president of SRU for the past 10 years, retired on Feb. 11.

Schwab said that SRU’s presidential search committee reviewed all the applications and narrowed the search down to six people.

The committee concluded the last of the six interviews last Friday and will now recommend the top three candidates to the Council of Trustees. If the council agrees with the three selections, it will submit them to the chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.

This chancellor and members of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher EducationBoard of Governors will then meet with the three candidates and ultimately choose one.

At Pitt, Humphrey oversees many aspects of the University, including the Office of Student Life, Residence Life, the University Counseling Center, Student Health Services, the University Judicial Affairs System, Career Services, Disability Resources and Services, the Office of International Services and the Office of Cross-Cultural and Leadership Development.

“Anybody who knows Dr. Humphrey knows that she loves Pitt,” Ahearn said. “She is honored that her accomplishments here led to her nomination as a candidate for the special opportunity to lead a Pennsylvania public university.”

Humphrey also serves as the Office of the Provost liaison to Pitt’s four regional campuses and led the initiative to create the Outside the Classroom Curriculum in 2008.

Before coming to Pitt, she served as the vice president for student development at Saint Louis University for six years.