UMass heads vow open search

University of Massachusetts leaders are seeking to dispel concerns that they will install an ally to replace John Lombardi, who is leaving the post of chancellor of UMass-Amherst, and are vowing to conduct a open, national search over the next year for Lombardi's successor.

UMass system president Jack M. Wilson will probably name an interim chancellor in coming weeks to take over for Lombardi, who was unanimously recommended yesterday as the sole finalist for the presidency of Louisiana State University.

The Amherst interim chancellor would probably come from the university system and would take the post in September, when Lombardi is expected to start his new job, UMass system officials said. Lombardi could be named president as early as next Friday, an LSU system spokesman said.

The search for a replacement for Lombardi, a combative but popular figure, will represent a pivotal test for Wilson and the trustees, who drew a vote of no confidence in their leadership in May from UMass-Amherst faculty. Faculty members have lambasted Wilson and the trustees for not consulting the campus at large before coming out with a restructuring plan, which included Lombardi's departure at the end of the next school year.

"There's a lot of fear on campus that they will handpick a chancellor and install them as an interim, then voilà, he's the permanent choice," said Mishy Leiblum, a UMass-Amherst graduate student and former student representative to the trustees.

Stephen Tocco, chairman of the UMass board of trustees, said that the board had begun assembling a search committee to find a permanent chancellor and that he will not serve on the committee. A spokesman for Governor Deval Patrick said this week that the governor would not be involved in the search process.

The search committee will be chaired by trustee Jennifer Braceras, a 1989 UMass-Amherst graduate whom Governor Mitt Romney appointed to the board last September. The panel will include a cross-section of faculty members, business leaders, and legislators, Tocco said.

"They had their fingers burned, and I think they'll be very sensitive to adhering to a more open process this time around," said trustee Lawrence Boyle, who had denounced Wilson and some trustees for devising the reorganization plan in secret.

Lombardi has not responded to requests for comment. Amherst faculty leaders requested a meeting with Tocco and Wilson next week to discuss the appointment of an interim chancellor.

"The ball's in the president's court, but we're hoping he extends an olive branch," said Ernest May, secretary of the UMass-Amherst Faculty Senate. Unless the process is open, faculty will view candidates as "someone the president is planting to further his agenda," he added.

Faculty members have urged a national search and passed a resolution opposing any interim chancellor being named permanently.

UMass system spokesman Robert Connolly said he anticipated that the search would draw "candidates of all-star caliber from across the country." The search committee will welcome outside suggestions, he said.

"Openness has been a hallmark of all the searches we've done over the past decade," he said.

Connolly said university officials had not discussed interim candidates because they expected Lombardi to remain as chancellor until next year. Several faculty members speculated that UMass senior vice president Marcellette G. Williams, a former interim chancellor working in the president's office, and provost Charlene Seymour were potential candidates for the interim post.

Senator Stanley Rosenberg, an Amherst Democrat and Lombardi supporter, said he believes that Lombardi's departure will deter top educators from considering the post.

"Intelligent people are going to be looking at this and scratching their heads," he said. "I have to assume they want someone they can put a muzzle on. Apparently they are not interested in having a strong leader on the Amherst campus."

But John DiBiaggio, a UMass trustee and former president of Tufts University, said the committee should have little difficulty attracting blue-chip candidates.

"The college has been improving steadily, and it's a much more attractive position than it has been in the past," he said. "You generally worry that controversy will be a deterrent, but people are ambitious and want to become university presidents and chancellors. I don't think it's going to be a problem."

Madeleine Green -- a vice president at the American Council on Education, a national higher education association, said searches for college presidents and chancellors typically take at least nine months. She predicted that many educators will view the UMass-Amherst post as attractive.

Pointing out that Lombardi, who was previously the president of the University of Florida, would assume his third presidency at LSU, Green said that 21 percent of presidents hired last year had led other institutions. "There's talent out there, and there's a certain amount of recirculation," she said.

Maria Sacchetti of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Peter Schworm can be reached at schworm@globe.com.