DATE: April 4, 2018
FROM: Nicholas P. Jones, Executive Vice President and Provost
TO: Faculty, Staff, and Students in the College of the Liberal Arts
I am writing to update you on our search for the next Dean of the College of the Liberal Arts. I met with search committee members recently to discuss the search process and receive their recommendations. We determined that we were not satisfied with the size or diversity of the candidate pool, so we will be engaging a firm to assist us with the search as we proceed. We will write to all individuals who already have applied for the position and ask them to forward their materials to the search firm if they still want to be considered.
Retaining a search firm lengthens the search timeline and requires other minor modifications to the process. I want to thank Doug Cavener, Dean of the Eberly College of Science, for his leadership of the search to date; he is unable to continue as chair of the search committee due to other obligations. Marie Hardin, Dean of the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, has agreed to chair the search moving forward, and I thank her for being willing to serve in this key role.
Also, I want to thank Susan Welch, who had intended to step down as Dean of the College of the Liberal Arts on June 30, 2018. Instead, she graciously has offered to stay on as Dean until December 31, 2018, if necessary, at which time she will return to the College’s faculty. If a new dean is not in place at that time, an interim dean will be appointed until the position is filled.
We are committed to identifying the next Dean of the College of the Liberal Arts from a robust pool of highly qualified candidates. To ensure this occurs, a confidential search process is essential. If you have questions about the search, contact me, Dean Hardin, or Kathy Bieschke, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs. Please do not ask search committee members about the status of the search because doing so could put them in an awkward position and has the potential to undermine the process.
After we have identified and engaged a search firm, we will communicate how candidates may be nominated for consideration. We hope you will join our efforts to recruit the best candidates for this critical leadership position in the College of the Liberal Arts.