The search committee that will fill the position of the dean of the College of Communication “is currently being formed,” new provost Kimo Ah Yun said.
Ah Yun said the committee will represent a diverse set of interests, including faculty, staff, administrators, students, alumni and a trustee. However, “faculty will have the greatest representation on the committee,” Ah Yun said in an email.
Stephen Hudson-Mairet, associate professor in the College of Communication and chair of digital media and performing arts, said in an email that the college is “still in the final stages of confirming all the participants on the search committee.”
Ah Yun said he expects approximately 14 members to make up the committee.
He also said he hopes to announce the final committee to the College of Communication during the first week of the spring semester.
After arriving at Marquette, Ah Yun served as dean of the College of Communication before taking on the role of acting provost in 2018 following the departure of former Provost Dan Myers. He served in this position until he was named permanent provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the end of the fall 2019 semester. Sarah Feldner, associate professor in College of Communication, currently serves as the college’s acting dean. She has been acting dean since 2018.
“My mantra as dean was that the students are first, and at its core, the college should create the best possible student experience,” Ah Yun said in an email. “I will continue to look for a dean who understands that our job is to transform students.”
He said in an email that as dean, he “enjoyed being part of the student community and working with our faculty and meeting exceptionally talented alumni with the understanding that we are a Catholic, Jesuit institution.”
Ah Yun said his experience as dean will have a strong bearing on the sort of candidate he will ask the committee to consider and how he will interact with the candidates during the interview process.
As in the search for the provost, the search will be closed and applicants’ names will not be made public, which was a decision the faculty in the College of Communication made after recent discussions and voting, Ah Yun said.
Ah Yun also said that, like all of the university’s decisions, the search will be driven by Marquette’s mission and guiding values.
According to the university website, its mission is “the search for truth, the discovery and sharing of knowledge, the fostering of personal and professional excellence, the promotion of a life of faith, and the development of leadership expressed in service to others.”
The university’s guiding values include excellence, faith, leadership and service, according to its website.
“It is important that the next dean understands the responsibility of leading at a Catholic, Jesuit institution and the ways in which that guides decision making,” Ah Yun said in an email. “The next dean will have to work collaboratively with the faculty and bring decision making processes that are transparent and include shared governance principles.”
Ah Yun said in an email that he wants the next dean “to be motivated and to have a plan to make the Diederich College of Communication an even more exceptional place that seeks to foster excellence.”
Ah Yun said that though the search will take as long as necessary to find the best person for the job, the college hopes that the search can end such that the new dean can begin on July 1, 2020.
This story was written by Shir Bloch. She can be reached at [email protected].
