Following the resignation of former director Peter Rainsford of the School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism management last summer, the University of Denver has launched its search to fill the position.

Candidates for director are scheduled to visit the campus within the upcoming months, meeting with a variety of students and DU faculty members. One candidate made an appearance early last week and another has tentatively scheduled a visit for the end of January.

Candidate Fred DeMicco, a professor at the University of Delaware, visited DU on Monday and Tuesday. He sat down with a variety of faculty members and students while visiting and discussed his visions for the school, according to DU student Kristina Tirjer. The students, many members of the HRTM society, also shared with DeMicco their goals for the program, attempting to see how DeMicco’s experience and knowledge would fit as the director at DU.

Members involved in the search hold a variety of qualifications necessary for the next director of the school of HRTM. The next director needs to be knowledgeable of the industry, both practically and with academic scholarship.

DU hopes to find someone energetic and passionate about the industry of HRTM. Finally, according to senior associate dean of the Daniel’s College of Business Glyn Hanbury, the new director needs to be someone who can move the school to the next level.

“We are looking for someone who is really going to help the students, really putting us as a priority and taking the students into account,” said Tirjer.

After meeting with potential candidates, those involved with the school of HRTM are expected to provide feedback to the search committee, who then reports back to the Daniels College of Business dean, Karen Newman.

It is Newman who makes the ultimate choice of the next director. Involvement in the search for a new dean holds importance for students of the school.

“[The new director] will affect us a lot as students. It is about our education and our life. In the end, a strong director will get us a better job if we have a better education,” said Tirjer.

The school hopes to find a new director by June, according to Hanbuy. Until then, interim director Robert Mill, a faculty member of the school, will take on the duties of the title.

Though not a director candidate, Mill has managed to direct the school successfully, according to Hanbury.

As the director, candidates are expected to fulfill numerous jobs while holding the position.

Duties include managing external relations, overseeing curriculum and programs within the school of HRTM, hiring and developing faculty members, working with and advising students, and representing the school within the Daniels College of Business.

Because the school of HRTM is an academic unit within the Daniels College of Business, the title of director is not the dean of the school, but simply the director within the program.

In June, former director Peter Rainsford stepped down from the post.

He directed the school from June of 1999, developing the program and new building. He has since returned to teach at the Culinary Institute of New York.