Dean search committees in three of Boston University’s six schools with temporary replacements say they are nearing final decisions and hope to have permanent leadership by next fall.
The College of Communication, the School of Education and the graduate School of Social Work are looking to have new deans in place for the start of the 2008-09 academic year, search committee heads said.
President Robert Brown said in a Nov. 30 interview that he asked every search committee except the School of Theology’s to “look externally,” and that many external search firms have been hired.
Brown expressed slight disappointment at not having permanent deans in some colleges that have been headed by interim deans for more than a year.
“It’s not optimal, but in an academic environment, if you really want really high-quality leadership, there’s no way around it, because the minute you look for an external academic candidate, you’ve basically said it’s going to be at least a year from the time you start to the time they’re here,” Brown said.
The COM committee is looking for candidates in academia or the communication business to devote the next seven to 10 years to the deanship, according to the committee’s job description.
Advertising professor Tobe Berkovitz was named the COM interim dean in September 2006, after John Schulz resigned following an investigation into his resume.
Since convening its committee in spring 2007, SED has interviewed semi-finalists, according to committee members.
College of General Studies dean Linda Wells, the chairwoman of the SED committee, said she would like to see a new dean start in the summer. SED interim dean Charles Glenn, appointed in July 2006, replaced Douglas Sears, who applied to be president of North Carolina’s Warren Wilson College in early 2006.
SSW’s dean search committee has “identified a number of promising candidates” and has begun conducting interviews, said committee chairman Kevin Lang, of the economics department.
Because SSW interim dean Gail Steketee has held the interim spot for more than one academic year since former dean Wilma Peebles-Wilkins resigned in June 2006, Lang said the committee hopes to have a replacement by July.
Lang said it was difficult to gather candidates because the field of social work is small and divided into many specialties.
“We are looking for someone who can bring together all the strands,” he said. “I think it’s a very strong research school that has not received as much recognition as it deserves, and we are looking for a dean to build on that.”
The late Dr. Spencer Frankl, the former dean of the Goldman School of Dental Medicine, announced he would step down from his position in July 2008, but his time was cut short when he died Oct. 20.
Frankl, who was SDM dean for 30 years, was the longest-serving dean of any dental school in the country. Karen Antman, dean of the School of Medicine and provost of the Medical Campus, appointed associate dean Dr. Jeffrey Hutter as interim dean.
Antman appointed School of Medicine professor Dr. Daniel Remick as chairman of the dean search committee in late October.
“It’s important for people to understand that we are working hard to have a diverse applicant pool,” Remick said. “We are looking at the vision each individual applicant has of where they want to take the school. We are looking for an outstanding leader – not just the best dentist, or the best researcher or the best educator.”
The School of Theology recently convened its search committee, with School of Law dean Maureen O’Rourke leading the committee as it looks to replace STH interim dean Ray Hart, who replaced Robert Neville in June 2003.
The College of Fine Arts has yet to create a committee to replace interim dean Walt Meissner, according to BU spokesman Colin Riley. Meissner has held the interim tag since replacing Jeffrey Babcock on Aug. 30, 2002.
