Administration is working to fill dean positions for the Colleges of Natural Resources, Humanities and Social Sciences and Engineering as well as the graduate school before August 1.
Provost Larry Nielsen said he is currently negotiating with a candidate for the engineering position, and hopes to have an announcement at the end of the week about the CHASS dean position. Interviews and the review process for the graduate school have just ended and, Nielsen said, several weeks of background work must be done before an offer can be made.
“Until everything’s done and the ‘I’s’ are dotted and the ‘T’s’ are crossed, the names are confidential,” he said.
Robert D. Brown has agreed to serve as dean for the College of Natural Resources, according to Nielsen.
The dean for CHASS, Linda P. Brady, left to take the provost position at the University of Oregon. David Martin, the head of the department of psychology, is serving as active dean until a replacement can be made.
In the engineering department, Nino A. Masnari will be stepping down as dean to return to the faculty.
“[Masnari] is really highly respected,” Nielsen said “But he’s done his duty so he’s going back on the faculty.”
Masnari announced his ending date as August 1 and plans to work until then.
Nielsen said he wasn’t sure what the timing for the dean of the graduate school is, but said he doesn’t think a new dean will be hired for several months.
According to Nielsen, the process of hiring a dean includes the creation of a search committee with members recommended by faculty senators dean’s respective college.
“We put together a committee that includes the faculty department head, associate dean, a staff member, a graduate student and an undergraduate student,” Nielsen said. “And usually an outside representative like from the college’s advisory board.”
The committee is generally chaired by another dean on campus, as is the case for the current committees. The committee then issues a job announcement describing the position, collects the applicants and submits nominations from the applicants. Nominated individuals are contacted and encourages them to apply.
“Typically we might have about 50 applicants,” Nielsen said. “Then they usually narrow it down to somewhere around 10 and those are brought in for what we call an airport interview. Fundamentally they fly in for an hour and a half, two-hour interview with the committee.”
Based on the interview, the committee typically chooses three or four people to recommend for full campus interviews, where they’re brought in for several days to meet with a variety of groups and people on campus. A committee then comes to a consensus on who is the top choice and, after discussing it with the Chancellor, Nielsen makes a job offer.
“Then typically, like Dr. Brown, these are faculty members and they’re given tenure in what would be their home department,” Nielsen said.
As to whether or not having four dean positions open is unusual, Nielsen said position openings come in “clumps” and that four openings out of 12 is just circumstance.
“In a situation where there were a lot of deans turning over at one time, sometimes that would indicate some kind of dissatisfaction with the administration. In this case, it’s quite the contrary,” he said, noting he was the dean of the College of Natural Resources until 2004 before becoming provost. “It’s just circumstance. Good things are happening to people, that’s what’s going on and if you’ve got good deans they have other opportunities and eventually they want to enjoy life so they retire and step back on the faculty.”
Nielsen said he has a positive outlook on what the future holds.
“I’m just delighted with the candidates and the appointments we’ve made and the people that we’re working on at the moment,” he said. “I think we’re going to have a crop of new deans here that are really exceptional. They’re going to take N.C. State to the next level.”
