The chairman of the committee searching for the University’s new provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs said the group plans to solicit input from a variety of sources, including students through their Student Association representatives.

The search for the combined position began earlier this month after Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Donald Lehman announced his retirement this summer, effective December 2010. Lehman will step down from his position in June of 2010, but will continue to serve as an adviser to University President Steven Knapp until December.

Committee chairman Forrest Maltzman, a political science professor, said student leaders will meet candidates who will vie for the position of second-in-command after Knapp.

“The committee’s plan is to get as much input from the university community (including students) as possible,” Maltzman said in an e-mail. “Typically in a search such as this, we include as part of the candidate visits to campus a meeting with students. Those who attend the campus meetings will be asked to fill out formal evaluation sheets. Although the details will not [be] figured out until closer to the visits (February or March), my intention is to have the student government play the leading role in organizing these meetings.”

Maltzman said the search committee will also ask students in the Academic Affairs Committee of the SA to weigh in during the search process.

The search committee will be comprised of three representatives from the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, two each from the Elliott School of International Affairs and the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and one representative each from the University’s administration, the Faculty Senate, Board of Trustees, Gelman Library, School of Public Health and Health Sciences, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, College of Professional Studies, GW Law School, School of Business, and the Graduate School Education and Human Development, Maltzman said.