At the end of the academic year, Hans Palmer will step down as Dean of the College and Vice President for Academic Affairs. The search for his replacement is entering its final phases; during the past two weeks, the three finalist candidates have visited campus. The new dean is expected to take office in early July.

According to Pomona’s official position description, the responsibilities of the dean include "the development and management of the curriculum and supervision of appointment, promotion and tenure procedures and decision. The dean also [is involved in] faculty committee appointments, [advising] on educational and budgetary policy, [and] managing a budget of approximately $26 million." Additionally, the dean is granted tenure in an academic department.

The three finalists are Union College Professor of Anthropology Linda Cool; Trinity College Professor of History and Interim Dean, Division of the Humanities and Arts Gary Kates; and Dean of Tulane College and Associate Professor of Music Anthony Cummings. They met with student, staff, and faculty committees involved in the search process during their visits, participating in open forums with each of the three groups.

The primary responsibility for the search process rests with the Dean Search Committee, a six-member faculty panel representing the natural sciences, social sciences, and the humanities. Its members are Professor of Psychology Raymond Buriel, Professor of Economics Cecilia Conrad, Professor of Religious Studies James Whedbee, Professor of History Kenneth Wolf, Professor of English Steven Young, and Professor of Physics Alma Zook.

"[The Dean Search Committee’s] mission is to nominate two to four candidates to the president," explained Conrad. President Peter Stanley will then choose one of the nominees to fill the position.

The College began the search by contracting with the executive search firm Morris and Berger. The firm initially identified approximately 100 candidates. "[The committee then] identified a small pool of candidates for the committee to interview. From among this group, we selected three to invite to campus…We attempted to attract applications from a diverse pool of applicants…Nevertheless, the pool was not as diverse as I would have liked," said Conrad.

To aid the committee in its search, advisory student and staff panels have been created. The student panel is chaired by ASPC Academic Affairs Commissioner Richard Sun ’01. The other members are ASPC President Brian Andrews ’01, Samantha Brenner ’02, Benjamin Glatstein ’02, Samuel Glick ’04, Chi Ha ’02, Natalie Klein ’04, and Mary Wade ’02.

The student panel was selected via responses to an e-mail sent to the all-students list. "There was no selection process beyond expression of interest," explained Sun. "The panel was put together with the intention that it would interview the candidates, go to the student forums, and after each forum come up with a recommendation for the Dean Search Committee," he said.

Questions that the student panel asked during its interviews with the candidates addressed candidate perceptions of the PAC system, ID-1 classes, Pomona’s relations with the other Claremont Colleges, and the school’s role in helping students find work or admission to graduate school, among other issues.

In addition to candidate-panel interviews, the candidates also participated in forums that were open to the entire student body. "[They were] fairly poorly attended, but I think that the interests of the student body at large [were] brought up at each meeting…[The audience was] a rather small sampling but fairly varied," said Glatstein. Issues discussed at the forums included media studies and cross-cultural studies, how to reform PACs, and how to deal with ineffective-but-tenured faculty.

On the staff side, the pre-existing Staff Council has been tapped to advise the Dean Search Committee. "[The nine-member council] is an elected representative group of staff whose purpose is ‘to enhance the role of staff within the College community,’" explained Council Chair and Politics Administrative Assistant Evelyn Khalili.

"Our role in the dean search has simply been to encourage staff members

to attend each meeting set up by the [Dean] Search Committee for each candidate and the college staff… I will meet briefly with the search committee at the conclusion of these visits to relay staff opinions," she continued.

The Dean Search Committee has asked that all comments on the three finalists be submitted by April 2, and a decision should be reached fairly soon thereafter. "It does seem to me that this search process has gone very well. The three candidates that have visited campus have all been excellent and I think any one of them would make a good dean," said Dean of Students Ann Quinley.