The University of Idaho is seeking a new dean of the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences, who will step into the position during the spring semester of 2014.
Kathy Aiken, interim provost and executive vice president, is the former CLASS dean and said the university seeks someone with a dynamic ability to act as both an administrator and a leader in the college.
Ideally, Aiken said, UI will hire someone who has administration experience, but who is also an advocate of the disciplines included in the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences — the largest college at UI.
“It is a very diverse college,” Aiken said. “It includes everything from theater and music to psychology
and sociology.”
John Mihelich is currently the CLASS interim dean, but will only be with the university until the end of the fall semester, said Lynn Baird, Dean of Library Services and head of the search committee.
“We’d like to have somebody in place by spring semester,” Baird said. “This person in general is involved with the management and administration of the entire college.”
According to the official job description, the new dean “must be an effective communicator and motivator, with a demonstrated ability to generate resources for the advancement of the College…” and “…provides leadership and advocacy for the principles of a university-wide liberal and general education, and for the college’s role in providing a liberal arts education.”
Because the college is so large, many general education requirement classes are taught by units of it, Aiken said.
UI collected names and resumes of people who were interested. The job opening closed Sept. 3. The committee will now proceed with interviews, and top candidates will be brought to campus where they will give a presentation, Baird said.
Aiken said that these presentations are open to the public, and students are encouraged to attend.
“There are always opportunities to provide comments about those interviews,” Aiken said. “Those people are an important part of the decision making process when we hire.”
The search committee is interested in someone who also has a successful career of teaching and scholarship and engagement, Aiken said.
When the presentations are finished, the search committee will score them and give the names to Aiken for her consideration, Baird said. With the advice of the search committee, Aiken will ultimately make the hire.
UI has been advertising the job in Chronicles of Higher Education — a fairly standard place to post jobs, Baird said, but also online at UI’s work source website.
The deans of each college serve on the search committee for other deans. This just happens to be Baird’s turn, she said.
A review of the applications will take place after Sept. 3, and the start date will be Jan. 2014.
Alycia Rock can be reached at [email protected]