Michael Whiteford, the interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, beat out three other candidates vying for the permanent position of LAS dean.

Whiteford, who will end his interim position and become the permanent dean of the college April 1, has been a faculty member at Iowa State for 32 years.

Whiteford has a lot of support from the people who work with him, said Mark Engelbrecht, chairman of the search committee and dean of the College of Design.

“He knows the territory,” Engelbrecht said. “He has great experience in many levels in the LAS College, from department chair to associate dean to currently the interim dean.”

Whiteford has been at Iowa State since 1972.

Whiteford said he has many goals, both personally and for the college. One of these goals involves addressing the budget problems the college has experienced recently, he said. He said he’ll try to accomplish that through the Budget Advisory Group, the purpose of which is to respond to the continuing need to make budget cuts. Whiteford created the group during his time as the interim dean.

“When we emerge out of that tunnel, it’s important that we have very strong units,” Whiteford said.

Another goal Whiteford has is to encourage undergraduates to study abroad or complete an internship, he said. Exciting and challenging off-campus experiences are very important for students to have and then bring back to Iowa State, he said.

Whiteford has studied abroad himself, completing health care research in Latin America. With varying experiences as a social anthropologist, he said, he can look at things in a different way.

“Working in a large, diverse college like this, in some remote way, it’s like doing a study of a community,” Whiteford said. “I like to sit back and put my anthropology hat on.”

Nancy Coinman, associate professor of anthropology, said she is delighted to have Whiteford, someone from her home department, become dean.

“[The anthropology department] has a lot of confidence in him, and I think he’s going to be a wonderful dean,” Coinman said. “We think it is absolutely wonderful.”

The search committee began its work in October, soon after the previous dean, Peter Rabideau, moved to Mississippi State University.

The committee did not rank or recommend candidates, Engelbrecht said. The search committee only gave its opinion of which candidates were acceptable, he said. Ben Allen, vice president for academic affairs and provost, made the final decision.

Other candidates for the position included Shari Benstock, professor of English and women’s studies at the University of Miami; Wolfgang Kliemann, associate vice provost for research and professor of mathematics, and Peter Sherwood, distinguished professor and head of the department of chemistry at Kansas State University.