Samuel L. Grogg withdrew his candidacy for the deanship of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications Feb. 8, said David Smith, chair of the Newhouse dean search committee.

The only other finalist, Lorraine Branham, the director of the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, has not yet been offered the position.

‘I was not aware of the official withdrawal,’ Branham said in a telephone interview Thursday. ‘…I’m still very interested, but no one has offered me a position. I applied because I was interested.’

Grogg, the dean of the School of Communication at the University of Miami, sent e-mails last Friday to the UMiami faculty, the Newhouse dean search committee and Greg Linch, the editor-in-chief of University of Miami’s student newspaper, The Miami Hurricane.

Smith said Grogg’s e-mail to Syracuse University was ‘a relatively short note.’ The e-mail stated Grogg was withdrawing his candidacy but has great respect for SU and the Newhouse school, Smith said.

Grogg did not return phone calls, but said in his e-mail to Miami faculty, ‘For too many days we have been distracted by the possibility of my leaving the SoC [School of Communications]. That is not going to happen. I have withdrawn my candidacy for the Newhouse dean position.’

The Miami Hurricane reported that Grogg sent an e-mail to UMiami faculty Jan 15., stating he had no intention of leaving the university.

Grogg interviewed at Newhouse Jan. 24, and Branham followed on Jan. 29.

They were the two finalists selected to replace David Rubin, who has served as Newhouse dean for 18 years. He will step down at the end of the semester.

The dean search committee no longer has control of the situation, said Joel Kaplan, one the dean search committee chairs. He said the search is now in the hands of Vice Chancellor and Provost Eric Spina.

Spina and public affairs vice president Kevin Quinn did not return phone calls.

Newhouse is one of four SU colleges searching for deans. The other three schools are The College of Arts and Sciences, the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science and the College of Visual and Performing Arts.

Earlier this week, there were five openings.

The School of Information Studies announced Wednesday that Elizabeth D. Liddy had been appointed as dean.

Liddy had served as the iSchool’s interim dean since June.

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Published on February 14, 2008 at 12:00 pm