Chairman of the Board of Trustees Malcolm Sherman appointed nine trustees and three faculty members to the presidential search committee at last Thursday's Board meeting.The committee will be chaired by trustee Meyer Koplow '72, managing partner at Watchtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, a business law firm in New York.

Trustees on the committee include Allen Alter '71, senior producer at CBS News; Jack Connors, former chairman of advertising agency Hill, Holiday, Connors, Cosmopulos, Inc.; D. Ronald Daniel, director of management consulting firm McKinsey & Company; Stephen B. Kay, former chair of the Brandeis Board of Trustees; Myra Kraft '64, president of New England Patriots Charitable Foundation; and Barbara Mandel of the Morton and Barbara Mandel Family Foundation. Michael Sandel '75, professor of government at Harvard University, and Thomas Friedman '75, foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times, will also serve on the committee.

Profs. Gregory Petsko (BCHM), Leonard Saxe (NEJS) and Gina Turrigiano (BIOL) are the faculty members of the committee.

Faculty Senate Chair Prof. Sabine von Mering (GRALL) said that the Senate provided the Board with a ranked list of nine faculty members from 20 faculty who were willing to run for the faculty seats on the Committee.

"We wanted people on the Committee who knew Brandeis well [and] could speak for the entire University, not just for their area of expertise, and we also wanted people who are nationally recognized scholars who would be able to help attract candidates and represent the strengths of our scholarly endeavor," von Mering said.

Sherman told the Justice that all faculty candidates were "outstanding." He said that faculty members were selected to be on the committee based on qualities including "prominence in their field, ability to interview [and] to evaluate potential candidates [and] knowledge and understanding of the University and its vision and goals."

Originally two seats were reserved for faculty on the Committee, but this number was increased after discussions with Sherman, von Mering said.

"Well I'm very glad of course that the Board of Trustees listened to our arguments for higher faculty representation. . The faculty are the people who know best what Brandeis really is and who can best articulate the academic strengths of Brandeis," she said.

Sherman added that although University staff is not represented on the committee, "[staff members] certainly will be participants in the interview process." he said.

Koplow said that he is in the process of setting up an organizational meeting that will place within the next 10 days.

"The Committee is responsible for managing the search process and ultimately making recommendations to the Board of Trustees," he said.

Saxe said, "It's a very important task, and I was honored to be selected."

"I am honored to be on this committee, and am enthusiastic and upbeat about the prospect of finding an outstanding president for Brandeis," wrote Turrigiano in an e-mail to the Justice.

Petsko was out of the country and could not be reached for comment.

The Senate is also accepting faculty nominations for a faculty advisory committee that will support the presidential search committee, Von Mering said.

The faculty advisory committee will consist of eight faculty members, and the deadline for nominations has not been confirmed as of yet, she said.

"Mainly, we want the advisory committee to be involved in all stages of the search, from the drafting the position description to interviewing candidates. Really the idea is for the committee to be involved throughout the search," von Mering said.

A Student Advisory Committee, created last week, will be providing student feedback to the presidential search committee.

The roles of the student and faculty advisory committees are still under discussion, Koplow told the Justice in an interview.