The final two candidates for dean of the College of Human Sciences will be on campus this week to interview for the position. The new college will be formed with the combining of the College of Education and the College of Family and Consumer Sciences.

Jeffrey McCubbin, associate dean for research and graduate studies and professor of exercise and sports science in the College of Health and Human Sciences at Oregon State University, is scheduled to be interviewed Tuesday and Wednesday. Cheryl Achterberg, dean of the Schreyer Honors College and professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at The Pennsylvania State University, is scheduled to be interviewed Thursday and Friday.

McCubbin has been a faculty member at Oregon State since 1988 and said he helped bridge the gap between human sciences and education throughout his career. He said he believes human sciences is important not only in school, but for families and the community.

“My goals would be to help the university elevate the role of human sciences in Iowa,” McCubbin said. “This is a great opportunity, and I could certainly help support that growth.”

He said he is not sure what the challenges will be, but knows that one of his jobs is to convince current students the combination is not the ending of two colleges but the beginning of a new one. McCubbin said human sciences help make peoples’ lives better emotionally, socially and in the community.

Anthony Wilcox, chairman of the Exercise and Sport Sciences Department at Oregon State, has worked with McCubbin for 17 years and said McCubbin has great ideas. He said McCubbin has found creative ways to find funding for students and was instrumental in the process of merging Oregon State’s College of Home Economics and College of Education.

Tammy Bray, the dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences at Oregon State, worked with McCubbin during the merger of the two colleges.

“He is the first interim dean of the new college,” she said. “He definitely has lots of experience putting two colleges together.”

Bray said she was shocked McCubbin was not a candidate for the dean position at Oregon State. She said McCubbin told her that was because he was from one of the original colleges, someone outside the college would be better. Bray said she considers her working relationship with McCubbin to be more of a partnership.

Wilcox said McCubbin is a thoughtful and considerate person who is strongly liked by students.

In 2003, McCubbin was named Educator of the Year by the Arc of Oregon and received the Outstanding Service Award for Persons with Disabilities from Oregon State University.

McCubbin will begin his on-campus interview with an open forum at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Gallery Room of the Memorial Union. The second forum, in which McCubbin will discuss diversity, will be held 11 a.m. Wednesday in 302 Catt Hall.

Cheryl Achterberg declined to comment.

She has been a faculty member at Penn State since 1985 and is the founding dean of the Schreyer Honor College, according to The Pennsylvania State University Web site.

Achterberg will begin her on-campus interview with an open forum 3 p.m. Thursday in the Pioneer Room of the Memorial Union. She will discuss diversity issues during the 11 a.m. Friday forum in 302 Catt Hall.