Updated with quotes 12:08 p.m.
At a special college coffee Tuesday, Wes Elingburg P'11, Board of Trustees member and Chair of the search committee, spoke about the hiring process for a new president of the university.
The search committee will consist of 15 members, including eight trustees, three faculty members, two student, one student and one senior staff. The committee will also reach out to the campus community in the next few weeks to get input on the qualifications people are looking for in their next president.
"It's going to be a wide open process as far as soliciting input from people," Elingburg said. "We don't want to go into the process with predetermined notions of all this. We want the entire community to give us that feedback, and then we can establish the prospectus by which we want to go out and approach other candidates."
President Leo Lambert, who's served at Elon for 18 years, announced Monday he plans to step down.
According to Elingburg, the committee will host meetings and forums on campus beginning in mid-March to get input from the community. Interviews are planned to begin in July.
The committee plans to have finalists by September, and then hire by the fall. The start date for Elon's ninth president is planned for Jan. 1, 2018.