EAST LANSING, Mich. - Michigan State University, led by an interim president for the last six months as it deals with the biggest scandal in its history, will over the next year seek a new, permanent president.
The university hopes to hire a new leader by June 2019, MSU Trustees Dianne Byrum and Melanie Foster announced during a news conference Wednesday in the atrium of the Plant & Soil Sciences Building on the university's campus.
Former MSU President Lou Anna Simon resigned Jan. 24 amid criticism over her handling of the Larry Nassar scandal. John Engler, a former Republican governor, has served as interim president since Jan. 31.
According to the timeline announced Wednesday, MSU will form a search committee by August, hire a search firm by September, and interview its first candidates for president by November. Finalists will be interviewed from February through May before the next leader is picked the following month.
The university will host listening sessions starting next month and running through October. It also launched a new website, msu.edu/presidentialsearch.
MSU's is being advised on its presidential search by University of Virginia President Theresa Sullivan, who was hired on May 29 on a contract that is expected to pay about $1,000 a day and require about one day's work per week.
This will be the university's first nationwide presidential search in a quarter-century. Its immediate last president was an internal candidate hired in 2005 and the one before that was hired in 1993.
The university also launches this search as it faces ongoing criticism -- and multiple state and federal investigations -- over its handling of sex assault allegations against Nassar.
Nassar, a former MSU and USA Gymnastics physician, is serving an effective life sentence for sexually assaulting patients and others and possessing child pornography. The university has agreed to pay Nassar victims $500 million to settle multiple lawsuits and has instituted several reforms university officials say make the campus and its health clinics safer.
From the archives: "In Larry Nassar's wake, Michigan State faces hurdles in finding the right president"
Engler was a controversial pick from the beginning and has faced continuous criticism over private remarks — made public by the media — that many see as insensitive to Nassar's more than 300 victims.
Engler has apologized for those remarks, and trustees have said he'll stay on board until a new president is hired.