Lou Ann Gilchrist has postponed her retirement to come back as Vice President of Student Affairs.
Following an unsuccessful search for a new vice president, Sue Thomas approached Gilchrist about staying on until administration is able to find a permanent solution.
Gilchrist has worked for Truman for 17 years and said she was not surprised she was needed back for her position.
Gilchrist said she was kept aware of how the search was going and figured they would need her for a few more months.
“[Thomas] let me know how things were going, so it wasn’t really a surprise when she asked if I would be willing to stay,” Gilchrist said. “I actually offered earlier that if things wouldn’t work out, then I would postpone my retirement to stay on.”
Thomas may sign off on whoever takes the position but, the responsibility of finding a new VPSA is ultimately on a search committee.
The search began with ads, which was one of the more costly aspects of the search.
Members of the search committee then reviewed resumes, interviewed qualifying candidates via Skype and invited finalist for a face to face interview.
Those finalist either just could not accept the position or had personal conflicts.
Thomas said the failed search is not necessarily a bad thing and the university is in a good position now that Gilchrist has agreed to come back.
The search committee has decided on continuing the search starting next week with some of the members having to leave due to conflicting schedules.
Senior Jordan Webber, who served on the committee last semester, said Kirksville was a factor for some finalists not being able to take the position as they were not sure about relocating there family here.
Webber said Truman worked for some candidates, but Kirksville did not.
Webber said when looking at candidates for VPSA, she wanted to make sure they had a background in mental health.
Because of the university’s new budget, Webber said one of the main qualifications the committee looked for in a candidate was there ability to handle changes in department funds.