Vice Chancellor and Provost Eric Spina called off the national dean search for the College of Visual and Performing Arts Friday. He changed current dean Ann Clarke’s appointment to an indefinite one.

Controversy arose within the college after Spina announced in January 2008 that the VPA dean would come from an internal search. Students and faculty called for a national hunt, and Spina confirmed an external search Feb. 7, 2008.

Clarke accepted Spina’s offer for the position March 14, 2008, though her appointment was only guaranteed for 15 months. She was hired to replace Carole Brzozowski, who Chancellor Nancy Cantor appointed to university performing arts presenter.

Last year, Spina said the external search would begin at the end of the 2008-2009 school year. A few weeks ago, the VPA department chairs sent him a letter asking him to cancel the search and permanently extend Clarke’s appointment.

Spina then sent VPA faculty a letter with the details of the chairs’ proposal. Individual departments hosted meetings, and Spina said he had a two-hour open meeting with faculty Tuesday. He said some faculty members agreed with the chairs, some wanted to postpone the search and some wanted to begin it. Some raised the issue of how the chairs went about making their recommendation, Spina said.

He then met with a small group of students Thursday, who he said were supportive of making Clarke permanent dean.

‘Ultimately, I’ve decided that I think what the chairs recommend makes sense, given the really incredible progress that’s been made within VPA,’ Spina said. ‘In terms of financial issues, in terms of searching for faculty… and confronting a whole host of issues that really hadn’t been confronted previously, and that were really slowing the college down.’

Spina said he made his decision based on the progress and challenges facing higher education. He said he planned to notify faculty Friday and students today.

Clarke will go through a formal review in Spring 2011, after completing her first three years as dean. Most deans are reviewed every five years, Spina said, but both he and Clarke want the feedback.

Clarke said she was pleased with the permanent appointment. She said the college has made improvements in its rebranding process, including a new Web site, and moving certain programs to the Warehouse building downtown.

But the biggest challenge facing the college, Clarke said, is the economy.

‘I think with the progress the college has made, and with the current economic climate, it would be a hard time to have an external search,’ Clarke said. ‘With our move to the Warehouse, and so many large projects that are under way, I think it would have been problematic in a lot of ways.’

Clarke said the college will have to move forward, despite economic realities, and work to make sure it’s protecting its initiatives and faculty hiring. Spina agreed, and said Clarke is making progress in improving the budget situation.

He said the university budget situation has nothing to do with the cancellation of the search, and that if the college had decided to go ahead with the search, the money would have come from the administration, not VPA. The choice has to do with the quality of Clarke’s work, Spina said.

He said after looking at the situation, he wasn’t surprised the chairs came to him with a recommendation that he make Clarke’s appointment permanent.

‘To be totally honest, and I said this to the faculty, over the last two to three months, I was asking myself this question: Should we really search? I mean, we have a dean who is doing just a tremendous job. Does it make sense?’ Spina said. ‘So I was asking myself this question, and certainly I felt that this might be a good way to go.’

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Published on April 12, 2009 at 12:00 pm