Georgia Southern University Presidential Finalist David Belcher, D.M.A., to Visit Campus

September 14, 2009

David Belcher, D.M.A., a finalist in the Georgia Southern University Presidential Search will visit the University campus this week.

Belcher is one of a select number of finalists who will be visiting the University and the Statesboro area as the search for Georgia Southern’s 12^th President continues. Belcher’s visit will include meetings and interviews with University officials and open forums for the campus and community.

Belcher serves as Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR), a position he has held since July 2003. Prior to his arrival at UALR, he served more than 9 years as Dean of Missouri State University’s College of Arts and Letters. In that capacity, he served as the founding director of the Missouri Fine Arts Academy, a three-week, intensive program of study for some of Missouri’s most talented high school arts students.

A pianist, Dr. Belcher has appeared throughout the United States as recitalist and chamber musician. He holds degrees from Furman University, the University of Michigan, and the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester, and was a 2006 participant in the Institute for Educational Management at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education. In 1981, Dr. Belcher was awarded a Rotary Foundation Graduate Fellowship to study in Vienna, Austria. While a student at the Eastman School, he held a one-year appointment to the school’s piano faculty and was named the recipient of the Jerald C. Graue Memorial Scholarship for excellence in musicological research. Dr. Belcher holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Eastman School.

The Community Open Forum will be held Thursday Sept. 17 from 4:00 p.m.-5:30 p.m. in Georgia Southern’s Performing Arts Center. Members of the community are invited to attend.

The finalists’ visit to campus is the last step in the initial phase of the Presidential Search process. The University System of Georgia Board of Regents formed a Presidential Search and Screen Committee made up of Georgia Southern faculty, staff, and student leaders and members of the local community.

A nationwide search of candidates was conducted and the Search Committee reviewed the qualifications of the applicants. After on-campus interviews are completed, the campus committee will forward the credentials of three to five unranked candidates to a Special Regents’ Search Committee for the second phase of the search.

Regents Felton Jenkins, William H. NeSmith Jr., Benjamin J. Tarbutton III and Richard L. Tucker serve as members of the Special Regents’ Search Committee chaired by Regent Donald M. Leebern, Jr. This committee is responsible for recommending finalists to Chancellor Erroll B. Davis Jr., who will make a recommendation to the full Board of Regents.

Georgia Southern University, a Carnegie Doctoral/Research University, offers 115 degree programs serving nearly 18,000 students. Through eight colleges, the University offers bachelors, masters, and doctoral degree programs built on more than a century of academic achievement. The University, one of Georgia’s largest, is a top choice of Georgia’s HOPE scholars and is recognized for its student-centered approach to education.Visit: www.georgiasouthern.edu.

Note to Media: Media will be allowed to cover the campus/community forum. However, videotaping will only be allowed for the first five minutes of the candidate’s presentation. The candidate will not be available for interviews.