On August 13, Dr. Faith C. Hensrud announced her retirement as president of Bemidji State University and Northwest Technical College. Hensrud, who was named BSU’s 11th president in April of 2016, will retire effective June 30, 2022.

Dr. Devinder Malhotra, chancellor of the Minnesota State system of colleges and universities, kicked off the search for Hensrud’s successor with an in-person visit to Bemidji for a series of listening sessions in September.

Malhotra said in an interview with the Bemidji Pioneer that the visits were meant to help him get a sense for what traits or qualities BSU and NTC would seek in presidential candidates.

“The visit helps us understand the aspirational goals and objectives of the two institutions and the kind of leader we should be looking for,” he said.

During his visit, Malhotra met individually with faculty union leadership at both BSU and NTC, then held four sessions at each campus — with employees and staff, with faculty, with students, and with administrative teams — throughout the day. In the evening, he held sessions with members of both schools’ foundations.

In a message following his visit, Malhotra shared his appreciation for the opportunity to hear directly from both schools what they were looking for in a future leader and commented on the deep commitment to and pride in both institutions that was evident throughout the day.

Minnesota State has partnered with Greenwood/Asher and Associates, an executive search firm based in Georgia which specializes in senior leadership searches in higher education, for support during the search. Greenwood/Asher has spent the fall semester assembling a pool of candidates, which was narrowed down to a pool of semifinalists in collaboration with a local Search Advisory Committee.

The 16-member Search Advisory Committee was assembled in October and included broad representation from Bemidji State, Northwest Tech and community partners. The committee held its first meeting on November 10, 2021, a half-day session that allowed members to meet virtually with the chancellor and the search firm, and to begin crafting a schedule for the search. The committee met again in December.

The search identified a pool of finalists named in February. Those four finalists visited Bemidji from February 14-17 for in-person interviews and meetings with faculty, staff and students at both campuses and with community partners. Malhotra hopes to present a candidate to the system’s Board of Trustees at its March 2022 board meeting. If successful, the new president would begin work on July 1, 2022.

“In the north woods, on the shores of Lake Bemidji, nestled within limitless natural beauty and surrounded by Minnesota’s three largest Indigenous nations, lies an opportunity like no other.”