The S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications’ search for a new dean continued on Tuesday afternoon during forums in the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium.

More than 70 students, faculty and staff gathered for the first forum to help guide the search. A second forum for faculty and staff took place from 5:15 to 6:30 p.m. Both were meant to gather input from SU community members about what they see as important qualities for the new dean.

The search committee formed in July, three months after Dean Lorraine Branham died of cancer. Amy Falkner, who served as senior associate dean for seven years, has served as interim dean.

More than a dozen students, staff, faculty and alumni serve on the search committee, including Mike Tirico ’88 and Falkner.

“We are committed to finding a leader for the school going forward that will be transformative in facing the challenges that are still out there in journalism and communications, PR, advertising — this whole field,” said Craig Boise, dean of the College of Law, who sits on the search committee.

Boise and two members of the communications executive search firm Korn Ferry — Peter McDermott and Olivia Marcus — answered questions from people who attended the forums. Korn Ferry is partnering with SU for the dean search.

In the next six to eight weeks, McDermott said Korn Ferry will be out in the marketplace recruiting, making calls, reaching out to candidates and posting advertisements to reduce the candidate pool into a long list. Korn Ferry will meet with the search committee in late October to review candidates they’ve vetted and recommend for search committee interviews, which will take place in late October and early November. Then, they hope to do on-campus interviews in late November and early December.

Boise said the committee will send out a survey to the Newhouse Advisory Board and the Newhouse 44, two alumni groups, to receive input from them as well.

Important qualities for the new dean included a background in journalism, a student-first mindset and intent to recruit diverse students among others.

Position descriptions will be made public at the end of this week.

Boise said the committee is casting a wide net in its search and is hoping to identify a finalist candidate by the end of the calendar year, said McDermott.

There will be no future open forums, but input can be sent to committee co-chairs Boise and John Wildhack, director of athletics.

Published on September 3, 2019 at 10:26 pm

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