Final Week: BU colleges' leadership to come into sharper focus

A permanent dean for the College of Arts and Sciences will likely be announced before commencement, said President Robert Brown, giving leadership to Boston University's largest college almost one year after dean Jeffrey Henderson announced he would step down from his post in July.

The dean search committee recently unanimously approved a woman to replace Henderson after narrowing down 350 candidates, said Charles Griswold, the committee chairman. Griswold could not comment on whether the new dean comes from within BU, but he said she is "very experienced in administration at an excellent university of comparable size and will both bring that experience to bear and see a lot of areas in which improvements can be made."

"She will carry the flag forward proudly and with great effectiveness," he said.

Before publicly announcing the new dean, the recommendation must be reviewed by Brown, Campbell and the Board of Trustees. The final decision should be announced by May 15 or the following day, said Griswold, the philosophy department chairman.

Noting that "BU is in the midst of a process of top-to-bottom self-examination," Griswold said the new CAS dean could change the college "from substance to governance style."

"Being dean of a great college and graduate school has been a wonderfully rewarding experience," Henderson said in an email. "I look forward to having more time with family and friends and hobbies like painting."

A new School of Social Work dean will also likely be announced before graduation, Brown said. Other colleges facing leadership changes are in the beginning stages of creating dean searches while interim deans are in charge.

Henderson and University Professors Program Director Bruce Redford will step down from their positions at the end of the academic year. Henderson announced his departure in summer 2006, and Redford announced his decision in December 2006.

Excluding the announcement to replace SSW interim dean Gail Steketee, the four other schools with interim deans -- Tobe Berkovitz in the College of Communication, Charles Glenn in the School of Education, Ray Hart in the School of Theology and Walt Meissner in the College of Fine Arts -- will hold their temporary positions as BU prepares to search for permanent replacements.

"It's important to realize that with 17 schools and colleges on the Charles River and Medical campuses, and with the average service of the dean being seven to 10 years, we would expect to have an average of about two [dean] transitions per year, and many of them will involve the appointment of interim deans while the search is conducted," said Provost David Campbell in an email.

CAS administrators, who began preparing for Henderson's departure last fall, announced the appointment of a search committee in October 2006 and launched a website asking for community input.

Glenn, who has acted as SED interim dean since July 2006, said he does not want to be the permanent dean of the college. He said he expects to hold the position at least until September 2007 because the dean search is still in the early stages after it began in February 2006.

"When asked, I felt I could not refuse, given my gratitude to BU for the education of four of my children, not to mention my own and my wife's graduate studies here," Glenn said in an email.

Meissner's office did not return phone messages left last week.

Although there is no set date for a permanent COM dean to be appointed, the college's dean search is "just beginning," Brown said. An external review committee, which will make recommendations for the college, will assist in the new dean search, Brown said.

Appointed in September 2006, Berkovitz said although he will hold the position for as long as Brown needs him to, he does not want to be the permanent COM dean, and would like to return to being a full-time professor.

"I came in amidst [of] a bit of turmoil," Berkovitz said of being named interim dean after former dean John Schulz resigned under what Berkovitz called "questionable circumstances."

Schulz resigned in September 2006, saying an inquiry into alleged academic misconduct on his résumé had taken a toll on himself, his family and the college. BU had already cleared Schulz of fault when he resigned.

The CAS dean search committee -- which included professors and students -- met with associate deans, Henderson himself and student leaders to get feedback about how the new dean should lead.

By creating a link to a dean search page on the CAS website, Griswold said he allowed the public to remain updated about the search and make suggestions.

"We have made a huge effort to be as transparent as possible to the community as is consistent with confidentiality and have reached out as aggressively as humanly possible to the community for ideas, suggestions and thoughts about how to go forward, which I think is new among the CAS dean search," Griswold said.

The new dean will be the highest ranking official in CAS and the Graduate College of Arts and Sciences, which are the university's largest academic units, enrolling approximately 7,600 undergraduate and 2,000 graduate students, according to the dean search website.

Although Glenn said he is content to serve as SED interim dean, he said he is eager to return to writing two books he was working on before he took the post.

This is typically the case with interim deans, Campbell said, noting that many temporary deans want to become regular professors after the permanent position is filled.

Berkovitz said although the job qualifications for a dean may vary per school, there are consistencies with a college's overall goal of seeing an appropriate dean appointed.

"It's a university process," he said. "You can only move so many of those searches forward at one time. It takes time."

Colleges can also still make significant progress despite having an interim dean, Campbell said.

"After all, on the longer term, all deans are 'temporary' stewards of their schools and colleges," he said.