The search committee in charge of finding a new Dean of the Kreiger School of Arts and Sciences is on track to announce their selection by Jan. 1 of next year, said its chairman, Provost Steven Knapp.
"The committee completed its first round of interviews this past Friday and will be bringing a small number of finalists to campus in the first half of December," said Knapp. "We will finish all interviews of finalists by mid-December. The interviews will all be over well in advance of Jan. 1, but we anticipate that it may take a few more weeks to finalize the appointment."
The 17-member committee includes professors and administrators, as well as one graduate and one undergraduate student. The committee's make-up was "consistent with the practice Hopkins has followed for all our dean search committees in recent years," said Knapp.
Members have been searching for candidates for the position since March, when former Dean Daniel Weiss announced he would be leaving Hopkins to become president of Lafayette College.
The hunt for a new dean has been on par with past searches, said Knapp. "Searches of this kind are usually begun at the beginning of the fall semester and completed toward the end of the spring semester. This time, we actually started the process in last spring, with the aim of completing the search in the fall semester."
The search for a new dean comes as the eighth within 12 years. Weiss, the latest dean, served three years, making his term longer than any of the previous six deans.
The Whiting School of Engineering conducted a pair of nine-month-long searches between 2002 and 2004, following the initial candidate's last-minute declination in 2003. Current Whiting Dean Nicholas Jones was chosen in August of 2004.
The Dean of the Bloomberg School of Public Health Michael Klag was named last May, following the retirement of Dean Alfred Sommer in October of the previous year.
"We recruited very widely. In so doing, we encouraged students, faculty, alumni and many others to nominate individuals whom they believed would make a good dean," Pamela Cranston, vice-chair of the search committee, said.
The committee hired the search firm Witt/Kiefer, who at first suggested over 100 candidates, and the committee reviewed the top 50. At present they have 11 candidates from which to choose five finalists for consideration in December.
Undergraduates were asked to send any candidate suggestions to Cranston, although numbers were slight. "I received one nomination from a student. However, it is possible that others were sent directly to Witt/Kiefer."
The University has unusual challenges in finding a dean, says Knapp. "Deanships at Johns Hopkins are unusual because of the degree of autonomy they involve. Each dean here functions almost like the president of a small university."
Knapp described some of the duties and requirements of the dean. "A dean here has more budgetary independence and authority than would be typical elsewhere," he said.
"He or she also has a greater responsibility in the area of fundraising. So we are looking for someone who can lead the school academically and will also be a strong manager and fundraiser. That combination of necessary skills is what makes these searches so challenging," Knapp added.
Steven David, professor of political science, explained his expectations for the new dean. "I think the next dean has to care about the School of Arts and Sciences, and he or she has to be a defender of the school's interests."
David emphasized the need for understanding how unique Hopkins is. "The next dean must understand that we don't need to fit into some cookie-cutter mold of an undergraduate school. We can learn from others, but that doesn't mean we have to be exactly like them," he said.
Other professors had less to say regarding their expectations. Sarah Woodson, a biophysics professor on the search committee said, "We've sent out some position papers, but I have no other comments at this time."
Cristal Ng, the sole undergraduate on the committee, was invited to join the search by Dean of Undergraduate Education Paula Burger. Ng said, "I've been involved in the whole process, from recruiting candidates to reviewing their materials and interviewing them."
She said that every member shared the responsibility of recruiting candidates, interviewing them and voting to keep them or not. "At first I was intimidated, sitting at the table with faculty and department chairs, but I quickly found that they were really interested in what I had to say," she said.
"I've learned that the faculty at this school really do care a lot about undergraduate education. I've also learned how challenging it is to balance undergraduate and graduate education along with research, but everyone really is trying hard to enhance all three," she added.
