The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences hosted four candidates over the last week and a half in a search for a new dean.
Dean of the college, Beate Schmittmann, announced her retirement in March, and the university has been searching for a replacement, with hopes of hiring in time for the new dean to shadow their predecessor before her departure at the end of June.
Dawn Bratsch-Prince, associate provost for faculty and co-chair of the search committee, said overlap in the hire is ideal.
“If we hire a dean with a start date prior to that, then we’ll have some time for transition, which is good,” Bratsch-Prince said.
Spread out over two weeks, each of the four candidates spent two days on campus. Each visit included an open forum addressing their experiences and takes on hot topics in higher education. Attendees of the forum mostly consisted of faculty members.
The presentations all held the same title, “Leading the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences into the Future: Opportunities and Challenges.”
Caleb Everett, senior associate dean for academic affairs at the University of Miami College of Arts and Sciences. Everett has had experience in cognitive science research, which he said aims at understanding human diversity.
Everett identified enrollment trends, math preparedness and faculty compensation and recruitment as challenges and opportunities facing LAS.
Benjamin Withers, dean of the Colorado State University College of Liberal Arts. Withers spoke to faculty about an evolving world of student recruitment, retention and student success.
Withers emphasized the importance of researching solutions to problems in higher education in the same way colleges conduct research on all topics.
Amy Thompson, chair of the department of world languages, literatures and linguistics at West Virginia University. Thompson focused on trust, communication and transparency and identified finances, curriculum and societal issues as challenges facing LAS.
Thompson oversees multiple majors and minors and focuses on faculty recruitment and development.
Hridesh Rajan, chair of the department of computer science at Iowa State University. Rajan spoke about his involvement, experience and initiatives at Iowa State, including his involvement with the addition of computer science and data science degrees.
Rajan has been at Iowa State since 2005 and was a 2018-2019 Fulbright U.S. Scholar.
In addition to an open forum, candidates met with Schmittmann, Senior Vice President and Provost Jonathan Wickert, President Wendy Wintersteen, Student Government, members of the dean’s office and more.
Videos of the four forums will be posted Thursday on the university website, where there will also be a feedback form for anyone to fill out until the end of the day Sunday.
Monday the search committee will begin deliberations and pass their input to Wickert on the strengths and weaknesses of the candidates.
Bratsch-Prince estimated there are a few more weeks left before there is any kind of announcement.
“Usually we are recruiting someone who will likely move here with family, so there’s a negotiation process,” Brasch-Prince said. “There might be a second visit to campus for the person that the job is offered to look at Ames, to think through the logistics of the move.”
Bratsch-Prince said the pool was upwards of 70 applicants.
“This is a great position at a great university, and I think Dean Schmittmann, she’s been here 11 years, she’s been impactful, she’s provided leadership for 11 years, so it will be a period of transition for the college to start to work with a new dean,” Bratsch-Prince said.
Bratsch-Prince said because of general education requirements like math and English, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences teaches every student that “the leadership role is a substantial one.”
The committee consists of 16 faculty members, including Bratsch-Prince and Dean of Engineering, Sam Easterling, as the co-chairs.
