Last week, members of the UK Board of Trustees and our presidential search committee completed a 16-city blitz across the Commonwealth.

We asked one question: tell us what you want to see in the university’s next president?

What we learned – from Pikeville to Paducah and more than a dozen cities in between – was the passion that people from all walks of life have for their flagship institution.

They want to see us more engaged with their communities. They want to ensure that their best and brightest enroll in – and succeed at – UK. And they want a president who understands that every community in the state is important and part of the fabric that we call the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

To be sure, people have different views about some of the qualities and characteristics that they believe UK’s 12th president should possess. Some feel that an academic background and a lifetime in the academy is critically important. Others believe that a business or political background is necessary to run a $2.5 billion enterprise that is complex and has many moving parts, from a diverse academic core to a growing and robust medical center. And, of course, we’re also an institution with a large and successful athletics program.

No matter the perspective, though, it was clear that people care deeply about UK. They understand its importance to Kentucky. They understand its importance to their hometowns.

The feedback we received will be important as we begin this week with the next phase of the search. Starting tomorrow, we’ll be interviewing a number of prospective candidates in Northern Kentucky. We haven’t eliminated anyone from our pool at this juncture. These candidates were people who piqued our interest initially and we asked for more information about them from our search consultants.

Over the next three days, we’ll interview these candidates to assess whether their backgrounds and qualifications make them the right fit at this time for UK.

And I’ll take a lot of the information I’ve gleaned from going around the state, talking with so many of you, about what you see as needs for our flagship institution.

I do know one thing for sure. We’ll be looking for someone who shares a passion for UK, the kind of passion I saw in abundance last week across Kentucky.