For members of search committees in the six Boston University schools currently seeking new administrators, this summer will be far from relaxing, as they attempt to select new management for each of them.
Provost Dennis Berkey said in an email that searches are currently underway in the School of Theology, the School of Medicine and Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences.
Searches have not yet started for the School of Law and School of Social Work, and the search for a new College of Fine Arts dean is temporarily on hold, he said.
In addition, faculty in the University Professors Program are finalizing the selection of a new director for next year, Berkey said, though he could not give information on the name of the possible new director.
STH Dean ad interim Ray Hart said a recently formed committee hopes to select a new dean for his school by Sept. 1, 2005 after former Dean Robert Neville took the top post in Marsh Chapel last summer.
“Our committee has met three times so far and our work has just now really begun,” he said. “We expect to advance three candidates to senior administration in the fall and, if they are acceptable, to interview them on campus in the course of the upcoming academic year.”
Hart said the eight-member committee consists of three elected STH faculty members, four provost-appointed faculty and a chairman.
“In our case, the provost appointed me chair,” he said. “Normally a sitting dean is not on the committee, but as an interim dean, I was appointed by the provost as chair.”
Berkey said the search for a permanent MED dean, replacing Aram Chobanian, who left to become president ad interim in the fall, is still on track.
According to the March 26 Provost’s Newsletter, the search for a MED dean is “progressing well with interviews in progress.”
But MED dean search committee Chairman Joseph Loscalzo said not much has happened since the formation of a 14-member search committee, which is currently interviewing candidates.
In January, committee member and MED professor Dr. Jerome Brody told The Daily Free Press that the committee hopes to appoint a new dean by the end of the summer.
Berkey said the search for a Sargent dean is also “proceeding well, with candidates being interviewed currently.”
Robert Meenan, the head of the search committee, also said the search is “moving forward nicely.”
“The search committee has held interviews with a number of candidates and is working to schedule more sessions with other candidates,” Meenan said. “We will soon begin bringing leading candidates back for a more extensive set of interviews.”
Meenan said the committee hopes to have selected a new dean by the beginning of the next academic year.
“It is impossible to predict when any search will end,” he said. “However, we do hope to have a successor to Dean [Alan] Jette named by the end of the summer at the latest.”
In the Provost’s Newsletter, Berkey said Jette “will continue as a member of the Boston University community, founding a new research institute to focus full-time effort on his work in rehabilitation, aging and assessment of treatment effectiveness.”
Berkey said a search for a new LAW dean is also currently under discussion.
“President Chobanian and I [consulted Monday] with the LAW faculty on the appointment of an interim dean and the structure of the search for a regular dean,” he said in the email Sunday.
Current Dean Ronald Cass told The Daily Free Press this month that he will be vacating the position to “explore new scholarly and other professional projects.” There had also been questions about the school’s fundraising practices, though he denied that was part of his decision.
As for CFA, the search for a replacement dean has been delayed. Dean ad interim Walt Meissner was named to the post in September 2002.
“Dr. Chobanian has delayed proceeding with a search in CFA until after the university governance matters are addressed,” CFA Dean ad interim Walt Meissner said. “He seems to feel that the college is stable, performing well and in good hands.”
Berkey said the search for a new dean is less important than filling vacated director positions in CFA’s schools of Music, Theatre and Visual Arts.
“Directors in music and theatre are in place,” Berkey said, “and the search for the director of the School of Visual Arts is in its final stages, with candidate interviews completed.”
SSW Dean Wilma Peebles-Wilkins said it is still too early to form a search committee to fill her position, as she does not plan to officially retire until June 30, 2006.
“They wouldn’t normally set up a search this soon,” she said. “It’s only an issue because President Chobanian knew we were having discussions and announced my retirement plans prematurely.”
Peebles-Wilkins said it will be difficult to predict when a search will end once it has started.
“You never know,” she said. “I think it’ll last a year, but you can never tell.”
Berkey predicted that the searches will produce new deans soon.
“I expect there to be announcements on appointments of deans in from several of these searches within the next few months,” he said.
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