Following the August announcement by the current dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine that he will retire at the end of the year, a 21-member committee met last week to begin searching for a replacement.

The search committee expects the new dean to take office by July 1, 2004.

Norman Cheville, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine, is stepping down to allow for “new ideas and new creativity.”

The search for a new dean will be headed by Catherine Woteki, dean of the College of Agriculture, who said the committee has reviewed the job description and will be moving ahead with the search process.

“We’re working with … a very tight time schedule,” Woteki said. “We expect that we’ll be bringing the candidates to campus to meet with students and faculty by the first of the year.”

Woteki said the next step for the committee will be placing ads in veterinary magazines and other publications for the position and recruiting.

“We’re looking for a person with leadership skills,” she said. “Someone who has demonstrated scholarship in research, teaching and clinical veterinary medicine.”

She said the individual must interact well with alumni, because the dean acts as the liaison between alumni and the school.

Woteki said she also wants the new dean to be “a person of vision.”

Alicia Carriquiry, associate provost and member of the search committee, said the committee hopes to be dealing with a large pool of potential applicants when the nominations for the office are finally collected.

“We’ll be seeking as many nominations as possible,” she said.

“Everyone who is nominated will be encouraged to apply. The best thing that can happen for us as a committee is for it to be a very difficult choice of final applicants at the end of the search.”

Amy Anderson, junior in veterinary medicine and president of the Student Chapter of the American Veterinary Medical Association, represents ISU students on the search committee.

Carriquiry said Anderson came highly recommended for the committee, and she’d been nominated by more than one person to take part in the dean selection process.

“We always have a student on the search committee,” Carriquiry said.

“Deans work with students too.”

— Daily staff reports contributed to this article.