The final four College of Veterinary Medicine dean candidates, narrowed from a group of about 50, will begin making campus visits March 25.

The candidates include Warwick Arden, professor and head of veterinary clinical medicine at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Bradley Fenwick, chief science adviser and chief scientist of research, education and economics for the U.S. Department of Agriculture; Eleanor Myers Green, professor and chairwoman of large animal clinical sciences and chief of staff at the Large Animal Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital at the University of Florida, and Laura Jill McCutcheon, acting associate vice president for academic affairs at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.

The dean position will be left vacant when current Dean Norman Cheville retires at the end of the 2003-04 academic year. Cheville served as the interim dean of the college in October 2000 and became dean in May 2001. The new dean is expected to be in place July 1.

Associate Provost Alicia Carriquiry said the group had several traits that made them stand out.

“All four have extensive experience in administration,” she said. “They have brilliant scholarly backgrounds and are very well-connected with the national professional community in veterinary medicine.”

Carriquiry and Catherine Woteki, dean of the College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine dean search committee chairwoman, said changes in the profession of veterinary medicine could provide a challenge for the college’s dean in coming years.

Carriquiry said many students today are more interested in practicing in small animal clinics and living in urban areas, despite the demand for large animal doctors in rural areas.

Woteki said the college is currently looking for funds to contribute to the college’s teaching hospital.

Budget cuts to the college did not have a significant impact on the dean search because universities across the country are facing similar cuts, said Woteki and Carriquiry.

“We’ve been very forthright with all of the candidates about the university’s budget situation,” Woteki said. “The kind of challenges that we’ve faced here at Iowa State are very similar as [those] faced by other universities — it’s not a surprise to the candidates.”

Carriquiry said there is more of a response to this dean search than in the past, possibly because the college accreditation process has already occurred and because of the priority put on getting funding for the expansion and updating of the teaching hospital.