Due to the timing of budget reversions and budget cuts, the search for a new College of Family and Consumer Sciences dean will be put on hold until Feb. 1, 2004.

The decision to review the organization and structure of colleges in response to budget cuts created a “timing” issue with announcing finalists for the new College of Family and Consumer Sciences dean, said Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Ben Allen.

“If you identify finalists, that information is public,” Allen said. “If for some reason a college is changed, it puts them [at] risk.”

Changing the structure of a college may also make it difficult for an incoming dean to “know what they were coming into,” said Pam White, interim dean of the College of Family and Consumer Sciences.

White, who has been serving as interim dean since July 1, said she believes there’s a link between the halt of the dean search and budget problems.

An option being considered in response to the budget cuts includes merging some colleges.

Allen said it is not certain the College of Family and Consumer Sciences will be merged with another college, and White said discussions about such a merger have not taken place.

“There has been no discussion of folding,” White said. “[The College of Family and Consumer Sciences] has not been targeted.”

While the dean search has been put on hold, other dean searches — including those in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the College of Engineering and The College of Veterinary Medicine — are continuing, despite budget cuts.

Former College of Family and Consumer Sciences Dean Carol Meeks said she was concerned about the other dean searches continuing, despite the search being placed on hold.

Allen said if the other searches were to the point of naming finalists, they also would have been put on hold.