Director of athletics Steve Abbott and University of Maine President Paul Ferguson bought out the last year of Tim Whitehead’s contract on April 9, letting go of the coach who spearheaded the program for the last 12 years. To help find a replacement, Abbott set up a search committee comprised of seven members to help with the replacing of Whitehead.

UMaine Professor Emeritus George Jacobson — who teaches biology, ecology and climate change — will chair the committee.

“George Jacobson was very natural [decision] as a chair,” Abbott said. “In addition to being faculty emeritus, he was our faculty athletic representative with all the NCAA processes.”

Jacobson will be joined on the committee by the following UMaine affiliates: Nic Erhardt, assistant professor of management, faculty liaison to the men’s hockey team and member of the Athletic Advisory Board; UMaine hockey alumnus Peter Metcalf, who played for both Whitehead and former UMaine coach Shawn Walsh; Richard Powell, associate professor of political science; Jon Sorenson, a UMaine alumnus who co-chairs the Black Bears of Boston and is founder of the Boston Executive Club of the University of Maine; Cherie Damon, president of Friends of Maine Hockey; and Janine Tremble, a UMaine alumna and president elect of the Black Beard Board of Advisors.

Abbott said it was important to get members of the university, the community and the hockey program involved in this decision and he said he went “seven-for-seven when asking if they wanted to be involved. They all accepted.”

At this point, Abbott said the committee would have up to two months to help make a decision but hopes it doesn’t take the allotted time.

“We have to give them a deadline; but when I talked to all of them, I made it clear that we would like to act on this as quickly as possible,” Abbott said. “They’ll have their first meeting [this] week as a group and they’ve all been communicating to each other throughout this period in emails.”

Abbott said the formal advertisement has been posted, though it was more or less just a formality.

“This isn’t a position you have to advertise,” Abbott said. “Anyone who has interest in this job knows it’s available. We’ve heard from many potential candidates and candidates already, but it’s just part of university procedure that you have to formally post the job to and you have to formally apply.”

However, Abbott said anyone who had expressed interest in the position would have to formally apply for the job once the posting was made public. In the meantime, the search committee is scheduled to meet to discuss certain criteria for what they’re looking for in an applicant.

“The president and I will talk to them about the position — what we’re looking for,” Abbott said. “They will give us input about certain characteristics and fit with the university.

“They’ll agree on rating criteria for the potential coaches and then start reviewing applications,” Abbott added. “Then they’ll get together and start talking about what they think of different candidates. Once they go through that list of candidates it’s up to them to narrow it to a group of finalists, and those are the candidates that will receive additional scrutiny and be brought in for interviews.”

Abbott also said he thinks the ideal candidate will be one who’s in a stable situation but wants to move up in the ranks.

“I think the people that are going to be most interested in our job are people who are in stable situations that say this is a great opportunity,” Abbott said. “We may not have some of the same time pressure as other universities competing for a candidate; it’s whether we can lure a current person away from their current situation.”

Abbott said that around a dozen people have expressed interest in the position. While he said he couldn’t talk about the candidates during the hiring process, he said interest is brewing.

“A lot of them are people who aren’t necessarily in the market. It’s just this is an attractive opportunity to them,” he said.

While Abbott did admit to discussing Whitehead’s future with the former coach during the season, he said he wanted to make sure the proper diligence was in place to make this decision.

“We wanted to be thoughtful and fully prepared and to really review the situation,” Abbott said. “Tim had done a good job of building the integrity and reputation of the program and it wasn’t a decision we wanted to take lightly. Hockey holds a special place on this campus, and it came to a point where we couldn’t let this go any further.”

While Abbott expressed confidence in interim coach Bob Corkum, calling him a “strong candidate” for the job, whoever is hired as the permanent coach will be able to choose his staff.

“Typically, the new coach chooses his staff, and that will be the case here,” Abbott said.