The search for the successor to Chancellor Rose Tseng is beginning, with seven months remaining before she steps down.

The 16-member University of Hawai'i-Hilo Chancellor's Search Committee was named Monday and will have its first meeting Dec. 3.

The committee is charged with recommending to new President M.R.C. Greenwood a short list of candidates for the post, which pays $23,660 a month.

Greenwood will then make a recommendation to the UH Board of Regents, which will make a selection.

Tseng originally planned to step down at the end of this year but had agreed to stay on for another six months so that the search for her replacement would not overlap with the search for a new UH president.

The new chancellor will face a Mauna Kea-sized stack of issues waiting on his or her desk on July 1.

While enrollment is skyrocketing, the university's budget is shrinking.

The new chancellor will be credited — or blamed — for the fate of the China-U.S. Center, which has stalled amid the global credit crunch.

The chancellor also oversees the Office of Mauna Kea Management, which is responsible for managing the 11,288-acre Mauna Kea Science Reserve.

That's on top of running a full-fledged four-year public university, with nearly 4,000 students enrolled.

The Student Services Building, the Science and Technology Building, the College of Pharmacy Building and the College of Hawaiian Language Building will all be completed under the new chancellor's tenure.

The search committee co-chairmen are UH-Hilo computer science professor Sevki Erdogan and David Lassner, UH system vice president for information technology and chief information officer.

Four of the people on the search committee are UH-Hilo faculty members. There's one student representative, four community members, two UH-Hilo staff, one Hawai'i Community College faculty and two members of the Chancellor's Advisory Board.

Erdogan said that in March the committee could come out with a list of six to eight candidates.

Interviews would be done in April, and by May the president might be ready to make a recommendation to the regents.

While Erdogan cannot speak for the committee, he said he wants to see candidates that support sustainability, academic excellence and a "good rapport" with the island, the state and the world.