Two candidates for the position of Dean of the College of Science & Engineering have been identified and will be presented at open forums this week and next.

 

Dr. Chell A. Roberts will speak at 2:15 p.m. Wednesday in Sid Richardson, LH 1. Dr. Philip S. Hartman will speak at 2:15 p.m. Monday, April 1 in the same location.

 

Dr. Roberts is Executive Dean of the College of Technology and Innovation and professor of Engineering at Arizona State University. Dr. Hartman, chair of the Pre-Health Professions Advisory Committee and professor of Biology at TCU, is Interim Dean of the College of Science & Engineering.

 

The two candidates were selected after an exhaustive process begun last fall with Provost Nowell Donovan's appointment of a Search Committee and the choice of an external consulting firm, R. William Funk & Associates. Committee appointees are: Paulette Burns (Dean, Harris College); Matt Chumchal (Biology); Jeff Coffer (Chemistry); David Cross (Psychology); Valerie DeSantis Hancock (Advancement); Kathy Ferguson (S&E Dean’s Office); Rene Finical (graduate student in Geology); Rhiannon Mayne (Geology/Monnig Collection); Brian Preskitt (undergraduate student in Engineering & Mathematics); Ken Richardson (Mathematics); Antonio Sanchez-Aguilar (Computer Science); Ann Sewell (Associate Provost); Yuri Strzhemechny (Physics); Anne VanBeber (Nutrition); and Steve Weis (Computer Science) who has served as Committee chair.

 

In addition to the Funk company’s recruitment efforts, ads were published in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Women in Higher Education and Diverse Jobs. In January, the candidate pool included 41 individuals of diverse disciplines, ethnicity, current positions and geographic locations.

 

The group represented 20 states: Alabama, Kentucky, Florida, Arizona, Connecticut, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Idaho, New York, Illinois, West Virginia, New Jersey, Mississippi, Maryland, Michigan, Virginia, California, Missouri, Louisiana and Texas.  There were two females in the group, 10 minorities, 11 Deans/Directors/VPs, six Associate Deans and at least one candidate from every discipline within the TCU College of Science & Engineering.

 

The Search Committee did multiple screenings and checking of references for the top eight candidates and video conference interviews with the top four candidates.  After campus visits, three final candidates were selected although one ultimately withdrew from the process.