With the impending vacancies in the positions of Dean of Admissions and Dean of Academic Affairs, the College, with the help of search committees and search consultant Kim Morrisson, is actively seeking strong replacements for these key roles within the school administration.
Colleges occasionally use search consultants for filling open positions. According to Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Nancy Jennings, "It's totally common for senior administrative positions. The value of it is that they have wonderful networks and identify people who might not otherwise apply but who they can persuade."
The position of Dean of Academic Affairs will be left vacant after this academic year. Craig McEwen will take a year-long sabbatical and then return to teach sociology.
According to search committee member and Professor Paul Franco, it is no simple process to find a dean replacement. Most of the positions are filled by former professors.
"It's a job you do for five or six years and it's plenty," Franco said.
In order to carry out the search, President Barry Mills appointed two search committees, one for each of the dean searches. The committees, both of which Mills chairs, are primarily made up of Bowdoin faculty members but also include staff members.
Members of the search committees are highly invested in the search but all have full-time jobs, according to Franco.
"It's nice to have a search consultant to shepherd us through the process," he said.
"It's important to make the right match," Interim Dean of Admissions Richard Steele said. "It's probably very helpful to have a search consultant to locate top people nationally and who dedicate themselves to finding the right person."
Steele, who retired from Bowdoin four years ago after having served as Dean of Admissions for ten years, returned this year to fill the position until a replacement can been found.
Rather than simply opening up the position to faculty members?although they are welcome to apply?Bowdoin is conducting a national search and is looking at applicants from a variety of locations and colleges.
Though Morrisson is actively involved in the process of finding replacement deans for the College, according to Franco, her role is to facilitate the search process by locating people nationally who are well suited to the positions but might not otherwise apply. The established search committees are making the actual decisions.
So far, the committee has received a large number of applications and will continue to accept applications. Members of each search committee intend to narrow the list down to between ten and 20 applicants who will be interviewed at a common location in the United States. They will then narrow down the applicants and invite three or four applicants for interviews at Bowdoin before selecting the replacement.
By winter break, each committee intends to have selected a candidate, who will begin work at Bowdoin at the start of the new academic year.
"We're looking for someone who is distinguished as a scholar and teacher but who has administrative experience and who has the demonstrated talent in administrative work," Franco said. "What's challenging is that most are one or the other."
Though it is imperative that a candidate be chosen to begin work in the upcoming academic year, the committees are diligently working to find the best possible replacement deans.
"This is a huge decision," said Franco.
"The Dean of Academic Affairs is the chief academic officer. In terms of setting the goal and the academic character, there's no one more important than the Dean of Academic Affairs. It's the number two person at Bowdoin," he said.