Dr. Jennifer Shewmaker and Dr. Jason Morris have been selected by the Provost’s Office as the two candidates for position of dean of the Honors College.
The candidates will begin the final interview process next week said Allison Spencer, academic coordinator of the Honors College.
According to an email sent out by the chair of the Honors College Dean Search Committee, Cynthia Powell, all full time faculty are welcome to attend two presentations from the candidates.
Since the departure of Dr. Stephen Johnson, who is now dean of the Graduate School. Dr. Jason Morris has been serving as the interim honors dean.
Allison Spencer works for the Honors College as the academic coordinator and was present during the transition.
“Starting the search right at the beginning of the semester would have been really hard,” Spencer said. “There were several moving pieces that Dr. Morris took over when Dr. Johnson left. They wanted to give some time for transition and get things settled so we didn’t have constant transitions all the way through.”
The official search began in November, but final applications for the position were due Dec. 1. While the position has been open since June 1, the fall semester was spent putting together a search committee.
Now that it has been narrowed down to two candidates, the Honors College will facilitate two Q&A sessions that will include Honors students so they are able to give feedback on the two candidates and include their perspective.
“In past searches, it’s been really important for us to get student feedback,” Spencer said. “It’s important for us to know that the students feel comfortable interacting with the candidates and to give us feedback on who is most qualified, most approachable, a lot of different things that are important. Some of it may be the more intangible qualities, and some of it may be more specific feedback that the students give.”
The search committee members are Suzie Macaluso, Allen Teel, Andrew Huddleston, David Kneip, Monty Lynn, and Carisse Berryhill.
