Candidates for the presidency of Jackson State University will begin interviewing April 19.

Dr. Glenn Boyce, commissioner of the Institutions of Higher Learning’s board of trustees, confirmed during the IHL’s meeting Thursday.

Last month, IHL Trustee C.D. Smith and appointed chair of the board’s search committee announced tentative dates to begin interviewing on April 18-20.

The board expects to compile a list of “best consideration” individuals by Friday, March 17. The deadline to complete an online survey commissioned by the board to collect public input concerning the next president of JSU  is midnight Friday.

The “best consideration” deadline is the deadline for candidates to apply to receive the nod as considerable. Then, the Witt/Kieffer executive search firm, hired by IHL, will provide all applications to the campus advisory search committee in order to review each potential candidate. Each member of the committee will compile a list of at least five candidates to recommend the IHL board to consider for an interview. The board interviews between six and eight candidates in the first round.

The survey is part of the president search website, which provides news, answers to frequently asked questions and an update on the search to fill the position vacated by Dr. Carolyn Meyers last October.

In October 2016, the Institutes of Higher Learning trustees reported that Jackson State’s cash reserves declined from $37 million to $4 million over four years. The board hired Ridgeland-based Matthews, Cutrer & Lindsay P.A., an accounting analytics firm, to assess the university’s finances between fiscal year 2012 and fiscal year 2016.

*Editor’s note: In a previous version of the story, the incorrect date of April 9 was listed as the tentative interview date because Mississippi Today was given incorrect information. Please note the correct date of April 19.