Throughout fall semester, President Michael F. Adams and Provost Arnett Mace held a series of meetings with small groups of faculty to discuss issues of concern and interest to the faculty and to offer an administrative perspective.
Out of those meetings came a request by the faculty for more regular communication from the senior administration.
This article in Columns is part of a series which will address administrative goals and priorities.
Searches for three critical positions are at various stages of the process, according to Mace. The search committee for the dean of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences is reviewing applications; the committee for the dean of the School of Social Work has made its recommendations to the provost; and the committee for the chief information officer has narrowed its list and is conducting interviews.
Tom Lauth, dean of the School of Public and International Affairs, is chair of the committee which will review applications, conduct interviews and make a recommendation to Mace on the next dean of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. Wyatt Anderson, who has served as dean of arts and sciences since 1992, has announced that he will retire as dean and return to his research at the end of the current academic year. The 20-member committee has begun reviewing the applicants and is working with the search firm of A.T. Kearney Inc., which has assisted with academic searches at UGA in the past.
The committee is working with the goal of having a new dean on campus no later than the start of the 2004-2005 academic year.
Bonnie Yegidis, who led the School of Social Work for eight years, took a position as associate provost this past summer, and Larry Nackerud is serving as interim dean. The social work search committee, chaired by Dean Sven Oie of the College of Pharmacy, has conducted interviews with four candidates and has made a recommendation to Mace. The provost plans to discuss the position with one of the candidates within the next week or so.
In September 2003, Dennis Calbos was named interim chief information officer, filling the vacancy left when Kirk Bertram resigned from UGA to take a position in private industry.
The search committee, chaired by Andy Brantley, associate vice president for human resources, has narrowed its list of candidates to six people and will begin conducting interviews in early April.
“The work done by these committees is extremely important to the future success of the university, and I am grateful for the time and energy that each committee member brings to the process,” Adams says. “I am certain that this work will make the university stronger by bringing to the campus individuals with outstanding experience and ability.”
