On February 24, 2016, West Texas A&M University students and staff received an email from WTAMU President Dr. J. Patrick O’Brien in which he announced his official retirement at the end of the academic school year.

In the wake of his announcement, the Texas A&M Chancellor John Sharp has named Texas A&M Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs, Dr. James Hallmark, as interim president. Hallmark is set to be sworn into office on June 30, 2016 when Dr. O’Brien officially leaves office.

Chancellor Sharp also announced the creation of a presidential search committee made up of WTAMU faculty and local community members alike.

“The committee will start immediately and will conduct a thorough nationwide search with the goal of identifying the very best candidate to be the 11th president of West Texas A&M,” Chancellor Sharp said in an official press release.

The search committee is headed by Don Powell, a local banker and a former chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Other community members on the search committee include: WTAMU Student Body President Edward Akinyemi, Amarillo rancher Mark Bivins, and former Amarillo Globe-News Woman of the Year, Alice O’Brien.

WT faculty members include: Associate Professor Dr. Ashley Campbell, Professor of Animal Science Dr. Ty Lawrence and Dean of Fine Arts and Humanities Dr. Jessica Mallard, as well as WT staff member Gilbert Antunez.

Dr. Hallmark is also on the search committee, and as such is not a candidate to become the next official president.

“Our job is to really identify and interview potential applicants, and then to send them to the A&M Chancellor,” Dr. Jessica Mallard, Dean of Fine Arts and Humanities at WT, said, “After that, the Chancellor will pick a finalist to present to the Texas A&M Board of Regents.”

While the committee searches for the next president, it leaves the rest to wonder what kind of president is going to be in charge of West Texas A&M University in the future.

“I hope they’re a good business person,” Aron Villegas, Freshman, Media Design major said, “I seriously hope he or she does something to improve school spirit thought. We need to get people pumped about being here at WT.”

Whether it’s by improving school spirit or some other endeavor, there is no doubt that the future president is going to have a major impact on WT. They will be the one in charge of setting the budget and allocating funding for several major school colleges and organizations, as well as overseeing the expansion and growth of WT’s campus.

“That’s one of the underrated things about President O’Brien” Dr. Wade Shaffer, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs said, “He’s such a strategic long-term planner, and he is excellent at setting the budget to his long-term plan. We are really starting to see how valuable his planning was, and we can really only hope that our next president has similar qualities that will allow West Texas A&M to continue to grow and expand.”