With the continuing search for the next dean of the College of Business, the second of two open forums was Thursday, Dec. 6, in the Kreiger Board Room of the Gerdin Business Building.

Faculty and staff members gathered to discuss and ask questions about the search process for the new dean.

Jonathan Wickert, senior vice president and provost, was in attendance of the forum and spoke about his take on the search. Wickert emphasized the importance of nominations from people within the college of both of internal and external personnel.

“We need to be extremely active in using our professional networks,” Wickert said. “History shows us the top applicants in the search come from the networking process.”

A timeline was put forth about the search, with Feb. 7, 2013, the official date the committee starts reviewing applicants.

The search was announced late October of this year. Both forums were open to the public with student input being encouraged.

Pam White, dean of College of Human Sciences, and Dawn Bratsch-Prince, associate provost for academic personnel, are co-chairwomen of the search committee.

“We were really pleased that the vast majority of the committee members we worked with last spring continued on. We’re very grateful of that because it really was a great committee,” White said. “In the spring the search was called off for very logical reasons. [Iowa State] had a new president and knew we were getting a new provost.”

The Parker Executive Search firm was hired to assist the committee in finding and contacting potential candidates. With that, the firm is expected to do a lot of the “background” work.

This entails possibly calling a candidate and asking them if they would be interested in applying. If candidates are on the fence, Parker might call a couple more times to touch base.

A semi-finalist pool is hoped to be decided upon and brought down for “airport interviews” in early March. The finalist pool is looking to be brought for campus interviews the week after spring break.

“We want to bring the finalists to campus when students, faculty and staff are plentiful,” Bratsch-Prince said. “In an ideal world, we are hoping to have the position filled by July 1, 2013.”

Last spring when the search was put on the hold, White and Bratsch-Prince personally contacted each semi-finalist explaining to them why the search was delayed.

Despite having delayed the initial search for the new College of Business dean, previous candidates have been encouraged to continue their interest in the position and reapply.

“The members in the previous semi-finalist pool have been contacted about the new search,” Bratsch-Prince said.

The search committee is more than obliged to hear any qualities desired or concerns students, faculty and staff may have regarding the new dean of the College of Business.

“Everything is moving in a very positive direction,” White said.

Check back with the Daily as the search for the new dean progresses.