When search committee members meet this week, they should nominate Robert Sheehan to become CMU’s new executive vice president and provost.

The committee has spent the past five months searching and conducting open forums on campus.

Now the only thing left to do is decide which of the three finalists – Gary Olson of Illinois State University; Thomas Hanley of Auburn University; or Robert Sheehan of the University of Toledo – they should recommend to University President Michael Rao.

Sheehan should be recommended because, of the three open forums the past few weeks, he did the best job in explaining his plan to help CMU work toward its goal of shifting to a research institution, as well as to achieve its 2010 Vision Plan.

Sheehan also stressed the importance of general education, something very convenient, considering the Academic Senate has been mulling changes to CMU’s general education program for some time now.

At Toledo, Sheehan already is in the process of working out a five-tiered general education plan.

His plans include: requiring all undergraduates to participate in a valid research experiment related to their field; requiring undergraduates to have a certain amount of guided service learning in the community within their field; requiring students to take an online course prior to graduation to prepare students for lifelong learning; giving every student the opportunity to gain an international educational experience; and requiring students to have some type of field experience.

Rao and the search committee would be smart to choose Sheehan. Then A-Senate members could hear his input and possibly come up with more ideas for an improved general education program at CMU.

Choosing Sheehan for provost also is good because he is familiar with the role. At Toledo, he currently is interim provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, a role he accepted in 2006 after serving as senior vice provost for academic affairs from 2003 to 2006. He knows the job’s territory.

And the fact that he is at Toledo, a Mid-American Conference school similar in size to Central, makes him an even better choice.

Sheehan already is familiar with schools like Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan, the schools CMU really wants to separate itself from. Bringing someone familiar with schools in CMU’s own athletic conference makes a lot of sense.

Olson is the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, professor of English and affiliate faculty member in women’s studies at Illinois State. ISU is similar in size to CMU, but being a dean isn’t as impressive as Sheehan’s job titles from the past few years.

Hanley has been a professor of chemical engineering at Auburn since 2003, during which he also served as the provost and vice president for academic affairs. The resume is there for Hanley, but he is from a Southeastern Conference school. Bringing him in wouldn’t be a great move because he is unfamiliar with the Midwest, as well as smaller schools.

Sheehan fits all the qualifications.

He should be CMU’s next executive vice president and vice provost.

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