<eparture of Bucky Zietz this summer from his position as Associate Dean of Students and Sophomore Class Dean, the college has been busy for the past three months trying to find his replacement.
With the help of the Spelman & Johnson Group, a firm that fills positions within higher education, the college has been able to find several candidates to fill the recently vacated post. In order to qualify, each applicant needed to possess a master’s degree in student affairs or a similar field, and/or a minimum of eight years of student life or higher education administration experience.
In addition to taking on the post of Associate Dean of Students and Sophomore Class Dean, the new Associate Dean of Students will be responsible for overseeing the directors of Campus Activities and Residential Life. With the recent resignation of T. Todd Masman as Director of Campus Activities, the new Associate Dean of Students will be responsible for filling this vacancy.
“I would say we had about sixteen truly qualified candidates to choose from”, said Nadine Sunderland, Hall Director of Watson and East Side Houses and a member of the search committee to find Zietz’s replacement.
From those sixteen candidates, the search committee, which is composed of faculty members, students, and staff members, has narrowed down their selection to four candidates. The four candidates are Andrea Conner, Jeff Stein, Julie Thornton, and Ginger Morgan.
All four candidates are currently holding positions similar to the one they are hoping to fill in the upcoming months. Conner is currently an Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Residential Life at Bard College, Stein is a current Assistant Dean of Students and Assistant Professor of English at Elon University, Julie Thornton is currently the Director of Student Activities at Washington University in St. Louis, and Ginger Morgan is currently an Associate Dean of Students at Colorado College.
Because each of the four candidates possesses the qualifications necessary to become the new Associate Dean of Students, the decision of who will be offered the position will ultimately come down to who is a best fit for the college.
Three of the four candidates, Conner, Stein, and Thornton, were brought to campus this past week for an open forum, which allowed those in attendance to provide their feedback on the candidates. The final candidate, Morgan, will be here this coming Sunday at 7:00 p.m. in the Alumni Guest House Library.
After all candidates have given their public interviews, the search committee will review their previous evaluations of the candidates and the evaluations from the forums of this week and next week to decide on the candidate that best fits with the college. The final decision will rest with Hudlin Wagner, head of the search committee and Vice President for Student Development and Dean of Students.
The search committee is expected to reach their decision by mid-December, and the new candidate can be expected to step into their position by the start of next term. However, their start time will depend on when they are able to leave their current positions.
Until that time Bruce Colwell, Senior Associate Dean of Students and Senior Class Dean, will continue to act as Dean for the sophomore class.