The AHSS Dean Search Committee recently concluded on-campus interviews with four final candidates for the position. The last candidate interviewed was Dr. Nancy Guerra on April 9-10, preceded by Dr. Daniel McIntosh on March 25-26, Dr. Stacey Robertson on March 31-April 1 and Dr. Judith Grant on April 3-4. The previous dean, Anne McCall, recently moved to a university in New York to take a position as Dean of Arts and Sciences.
According to Nancy Allen, chair of the AHSS Dean Search Committee, each final candidate had an intensive two-day interview schedule that included tours of the AHSS facilities on campus and meetings with key stakeholder groups in the university community.
“It’s a really good way to introduce the candidates to the campus and the campus to the candidates,” said Allen. “The whole idea is to make sure that we have really good community engagement in the interview process.”
Allen said the search committee received almost 100 applications, mostly submitted in the beginning of January. After reading through application materials, the search committee screened the top 24 candidates with videoconferencing technology in the AAC. From there, they narrowed it down to eight candidates who flew to Denver to meet the committee members in person. Finally, they chose four finalists to do more extensive interviews on campus.
The AHSS Dean Search Committee is made up of 12 members, including Allen, seven faculty members, three DU trustees and one member of the AHSS Advisory Board. According to Allen, the work of the committee is to go through application materials, recruit candidates, screen candidates and match candidate qualifications against the stated criteria for decision-making.
“I think a lot of it is plain old logic,” said Allen. “The position specification says what qualities and experience are expected in a successful candidate. It’s complicated, but at heart it’s about matching those criteria with the candidates. It’s very fair and even-handed.”
Now that all the finalists have been interviewed, Provost Gregg Kvistad and Chancellor Robert Coombe will meet with the committee, and each committee member will have the opportunity to express his or her opinions of the candidates. The search will then be turned over to the provost and the chancellor. They will read all the materials and pick one or two candidates to come to campus for another visit. Finally, there will be an announcement about the new AHSS Dean, who will probably be appointed in the summer.
As part of the recent interview process, each of the four finalists presented a public seminar titled “The Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences in the Landscape of Higher Education.” These presentations were open to the whole university committee. Afterwards, the candidates had time to meet with a smaller group of undergraduate and graduate students. These groups tended to include four or five students, with at least one undergraduate and one graduate student present at each meeting.
“We really want to be transparent, and have as much information about the finalists as possible available to people who are giving us feedback,” said Allen.
She added that anyone who met with one or more of the final candidates was invited to fill out a feedback survey online. The surveys closed at the end of the day on Friday, April 11. Now the search committee will use the surveys to generate reports, so they can discuss campus feedback during their deliberations and analysis sessions.
Leslie Rossman, a doctoral candidate in Communication Studies and president of the Graduate Student Government (GSG), attended meetings with all four finalists. She was also involved with the search committee in the initial stages of the process, discussing graduate students’ needs and expectations from a new dean.
“The candidates were all pretty responsive to our questions,” said Rossman. “I think each of the candidates are really open to trying to find ways to assist students on campus, whether that be with funding or interdisciplinary dialogue. They’re all willing to incorporate that into their efforts.”
Rossman added that there were several common themes among the candidates, including how to market or brand the division more effectively to a wider audience, and how to get more involved with students.
“Basically, they talked about how they would bring in their experiences from their respective institutions and roles, including their experience of working closely with students,” said Rossman. “They want more student involvement in their office. They want students to know who they are.”
According to Allen, the search committee was very excited about the overall quality of the applicants, and of the finalists in particular.
“The committee is very pleased with the exemplary qualifications of these four final candidates,” said Allen. “I think everyone on the committee was very happy to present individuals with such strong qualifications.”
