UVa settles on pick for new president

Updated: 2:50p.m.

The University of Virginia today named the provost from the University of Michigan as its new president.

Teresa A. Sullivan will succeed President John T. Casteen III on Aug. 1 as head of the state flagship university. She has been provost and executive vice president for academic affairs for the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, since 2006.

Updated: 11:12p.m.

The next president of the University of Virginia will be announced Monday, UVa officials confirmed today.

UVa’s Board of Visitors is scheduled to meet at 2:30 p.m. Monday to elect the successor to retiring UVa President John T. Casteen III.

The new president — whose identity has not been publicly revealed — will take the reins of the 21,000-student university when Casteen steps down Aug. 1 at the conclusion of his second decade as UVa’s president.

A national search for UVa’s eighth president has been under way since mid-2009. The 19-member search committee included nine members of the BOV, six faculty members, two former rectors and two students.

Much of the search committee’s work was a closely guarded secret. In recent weeks, its members interviewed finalist candidates at undisclosed locations.

As of last fall, more than 100 candidates were nominated for the position, which is among the most high-profile posts in higher education. UVa is ranked as the nation’s No. 2 public university.

Students, faculty, staff and the general public had a chance to weigh in on what qualities the next presidents ought to possess at six public forums held in August and September. The search committee also conducted interviews with dozens of higher education leaders to understand better what it takes to lead a modern university.

The search committee conducted its candidate interviews under strict confidentiality, out of a fear that finalists would remove their names from consideration should they be publicly revealed. John O. “Dubby” Wynne, UVa’s rector and chairman of the committee, addressed the issue in an Oct. 30 letter about the process.

“Higher education leaders have told us, and prior experience has informed us, that presidential searches can be effective only if candidates are assured of confidentiality,” he wrote. “We also have been warned that a breach causes candidates to withdraw, threatening the viability of the search. We cannot take such a risk.”

Wynne could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Little information was released about Monday’s special BOV meeting. A notice over the weekend announced only that the board was scheduled to convene with the purpose of electing “a senior official.”

UVa spokeswoman Carol Wood confirmed Sunday that the senior official is the university’s next president.

“I can confirm that,” Wood said.

Wood declined to provide the next president’s identity or any additional information.

Following the new president's election in the Dome Room of the Rotunda, there will be a reception at 4 p.m. in the Newcomb Hall ballroom to welcome the new president. All members of the university community are invited to attend, including alumni, students, faculty, parents and friends of UVa who live in the Charlottesville region.

Among those whose names have surfaced as possible contenders for the post is Edward L. Ayers, former dean of UVa’s College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and the current president of the University of Richmond.

Ayers, however, wrote in an e-mail Sunday that he never sought the job. " As it turns out, it can’t be me because I was not a candidate for the position. I'm very happy at the University of Richmond, where we're doing exciting things," Ayers said.