The dean search within the College of Arts and Sciences at Syracuse University will begin soon after Chancellor Kent Syverud completes meetings with both faculty and students from the college this month.

Current Arts and Sciences Dean George Langford announced on Dec. 11 that he would step down from his position to return to teaching. This will be Syverud’s first opportunity to appoint a dean since becoming chancellor at SU.

Ramesh Raina, the head of the faculty council and an associate professor of biology, said the chancellor should begin to wrap up his meetings collecting opinions from the staff and students of the College of Arts and Sciences by the end of February.

Raina said the last open faculty meeting with Syverud was successful and that the chancellor was respectful and keen to the open and honest conversations by the faculty members.

“I would say all aspects of the college were discussed upon,” Raina said.

He added that some faculty members in the meeting said they want a dean that would increase fellowships and stipends for students, permit more operations in the budgeting for the departments and provide more freedom in decision making to the chairs of the departments within the college.

Syverud will be meeting with faculty on Wednesday, Raina said. He will then hold an open meeting with students from the college on Friday.

Sam Gorovitz, a professor of philosophy, said the chancellor has been using these meetings to learn about the college’s strengths that should be preserved or expanded and the problems that need to be solved in the college.

“He is admirably in fact-finding mode,” said Gorovitz.

By Friday, Syverud will have held at least seven general meetings with various groups on campus since the first meeting he held on Jan. 14, Raina said.

After Syverud’s general meetings, Raina said, the chancellor will meet with the faculty council again to plan how to officially begin the search process and create a search committee.

If a new dean is not chosen by June 30, then an interim dean will be selected, Raina said. He added that the chancellor would like to have a new dean hired by Jan. 1 of 2015 at the latest.

Gorovitz said it is important for Syverud to not rush the dean search process.

“I believe the chancellor has made crystal clear his understanding that a great university must have a great college of arts and sciences at its core,” he said.

Eugene Poletsky, chair of the math department, said he has met with Syverud in two different meetings.

“I think he was listening very carefully, he was making notes and it’s clear to me that he really wants to get into the life of the college and its problems very seriously,” Poletsky said.

Gorovitz said the search may begin in early March. However, he added there is no standard timeline for filling these important positions. When Gorovitz left his position as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences around 1992, he said the search took two years.

Poletsky said it has not been long enough since Langford’s announcement to collect a credible pool of applicants.

“It’s hard for me to believe that we will succeed in hiring a new dean and go through a thorough search in one semester,” he said.

Poletsky added that he would like to see an interim dean selected by the fall semester of 2014.

However long the dean search process will be, Poletsky hopes the new dean will embrace entire college.

Said Poletsky: “There is a lot of cultural diversity among the departments of this college — from such things as human studies to mathematics — and the future dean should somehow understand how all these departments operate and differ from each other.”

Published on February 19, 2014 at 1:32 am

Contact Anna: almerod@syr.edu