State Sen. Mike Kehoe and State Technical College Faculty Senate President Dwight Massey are the two newest members of the school's Presidential Search Advisory Committee.
The Board of Regents announced the appointments today.
Kehoe, R-Jefferson City, is a former regent and is listed as a "community" representative on the search committee.
The advisory committee will help the Board of Regents search for the school's next president, because current President Don Claycomb is retiring June 30.
"We tried to get as much representation from different constituents as possible on this committee," Regents Chairman John Klebba said Tuesday. "This is a huge decision for the board, obviously, in choosing a successor to Dr. Claycomb.
"Probably one of the most important - if not the most important - functions that we have is to choose the leader of the institution, and we want to get as much input from as many different constituents as possible, so that we can make the best choice that we can."
Klebba and fellow regents Scott Christianson and Toni Schwartz are on the advisory committee.
Claycomb, who has headed the Linn-based school since 1993, also is an advisory committee member, but Klebba doesn't think there's any problem with having him help search for his successor.
"If you had a situation where there were problems with the president from an institutional point of view, or they were leaving on other than good terms," Klebba explained, "then I'd say, "Yeah, you probably would not have them on your search committee.'
"But to have someone who has been through a search process before, elsewhere, and has been so instrumental in moving the institution forward - and who, if he wasn't at a point where he was retiring, we would certainly retain him - I think it's just going to be nothing but positives for us."
The State Technical College of Missouri started in the early 1960s as a technical education program of the Linn School District, using space in the high school.
The program grew to a point where, in the mid-1990s - with Claycomb as its president - it became a state-owned institution with a statewide, technical education mission, and started building its current campus on U.S. 50 east of Linn.
"(Claycomb) clearly has the interests of the institution and the future of the institution at heart," Klebba told the News Tribune. "So, it's going to be really tough to say goodbye to him.
"But I think it's going to be helpful to have him on board, to help us choose another leader."
The regents hired Gold Hill Associates, Jackson, Mississippi, as the consulting firm to help manage the presidential search.
"What we were looking for was a firm that specializes in two-year colleges," Klebba said, "because the people you're looking for are different in terms of characteristics than for four-year institutions - especially for a technical college, as opposed to, even, a community college."
Although Claycomb's retirement date is June 30, Klebba said there's plenty of time to advertise the vacancy, take applications, do interviews and make a final choice.
"The fact that we're attacking this so early is going to be beneficial for us," he said. "We have plenty of time to vet candidates.
"And Dr. Claycomb has indicated that he is going to be flexible - so, in the unlikely event that we wouldn't come up with a (final) candidate, I don't think the June 30 date is a hard-and-fast one for him."