SWOSU President Search Sees Large Amount of Applicants

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December 9, 2020

By News Director Jared Atha

Due to the tremendous response of applications received on the last two days of the application period that ended December 6, the meeting of the Southwestern Oklahoma State University Presidential Search Screening Committee will be delayed until January.

The meeting was originally set for December 10 in Weatherford.

Jane McDermott, committee chair for the Regional University System of Oklahoma (RUSO), said regents want the screening committee to have ample opportunity to carefully consider every application before providing their recommendations. A day and time for the meeting will be announced later.

There are 71 applications for SWOSU president. Current President Randy Beutler announced his retirement effective June 30, 2021. McDermott said the regents are not reopening the application period.

There are 21 members of the SWOSU Presidential Search Screening Committee as appointed by the RUSO Regents. Many of which have western Oklahoma ties. Among them include local bankers Lake Carpenter and Brent Meador, and Dean of the SWOSU-Sayre Campus Bill Smartwood.

The RUSO Regents will ultimately make the final hiring decision.