Members of the committee searching for the new director for the Center of International Education completed interviews with the candidates last week.
Rachel Brown, Study Abroad coordinator, said the listing for the director’s position was posted on the human resources website for several months and the committee began interviewing the final candidates at the end of March.
Dr. Robert Rhodes, provost, said there were several applicants, but the committee chose four finalists.
Rhodes said the first candidate was interviewed March 19 and the final interview was conducted April 1.
“All four of them have been interviewed,” he said. “So now the committee is seeking feedback and then will be forwarding a recommendation on to me.”
Stephen Shewmaker served as the interim director for the Center of International Education for the past academic year. Rhodes said Shewmaker is one of the four finalists.
He said the duties of the director include “both the receiving and then sending of students.”
“This is an individual who helps both promote on-campus Study Abroad, who works closely with our directors in the various sites, who identifies and schedules faculty to be the visiting faculty at these sites, but then also works with our offices to be sure those students coming internationally have their things taken care of for them,” Rhodes said.
He said the director also works with “non-hub site” programs.
“When a college or department takes a trip that might be to somewhere other than Montevideo or Oxford or Leipzig, as they do that they coordinate that with this office so that we have knowledge of where those various groups are around the world at any given time,” he said.
Rhodes said this position requires several different skills.
“They need to be able to understand the mission of ACU and our desire to educate global leaders from a Christ-like prospective,” he said.
Dr. Lynette Sharp Penya is chairing the committee. Committee members are Dr. Laura Carroll, Dr. Ken Cukrowski, Dr. John Delony, Daniel Garcia, Dr. Jeff Haseltine, Ronnie Rama and Dr. Phil Vardiman.
Rhodes said the committee is looking for someone who understands the technical and missional aspects of the position. He said the new director must also have the administrative skills to manage the large program.
Now that all the candidates have been interviewed, Rhodes said the search committee will meet sometime in the next week to forward on a recommendation.
He said he an appointment could be made in the next two to three weeks.
Rhodes said a challenge the new director will face will be to expand the program so more and more students are involved, but he said he looks forward to ACU continuing to grow in these areas.
