In July, Syracuse University Professor Arthur McDonald will take on one more role in addition to teaching and professionally practicing architecture: interim dean of the School of Architecture.

Vice Chancellor Deborah Freund appointed McDonald to the position earlier this semester on the recommendation of several of his colleagues. McDonald will replace Dean Bruce Abbey, who will resign his administrative position in order to return to teaching.

“He’s very respected in the school and the professional community,” Freund said.

McDonald knew the school was searching for someone to fill the position, but was shocked to hear that he would be asked to fill it, he said.

“It was a bit of a surprise,” McDonald said. “I was honored and surprised that she thought I could do it.”

Freund said she had doubts that McDonald would accept the position because of his heavy schedule.

“I’m delighted he said yes,” Freund said. “I didn’t think he would because he’s so busy with school and his practice. It shows how much he loves Syracuse University and that he would do anything for the school.”

Most architecture professors work professionally in private architecture practices in addition to teaching, Freund said. This serves as architecture professors’ equivalent of performing research, she said.

McDonald, who began teaching at SU in 1974, has previously served as chairman of the undergraduate architecture program and is currently chairman of the graduate architecture program. He has also been a professor-in-residence at the school’s program in Florence, Italy and served on a number of committees.

McDonald will assume the position of dean on July 1. He said he hopes that he will have to hold the position for no more than one year while a committee searches for a new dean of the school.

David Rubin, dean of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and chairman of the committee looking for a new School of Architecture dean, said he hopes the school’s ranking will attract the best candidates to the school. The school is ranked the 4th in the nation by the Almanac of Architecture and Design, Design Intelligence and the Design Futures Council.

“It’s quite possible that our job could be the best one out there because we’ve got one of the best programs in the country,” Rubin said. “I hope that’s the case.”

McDonald said the new dean will have many tasks to complete, but said he thinks he or she will understand that it is a part of working for one of the best schools.

“The new dean will be someone who needs to lead the school to the next tier of excellence and continue to strengthen the school,” McDonald said. “They would be coming in and realizing what kind of reputation the school has and that we have highly-ranked and professional programs.”

Rubin said the search committee met once already and will meet again this month. The process for hiring a new dean includes calling potential candidates and narrowing the application pool through interviews and on-campus visits where the candidates meet with professors and students, Rubin said. He said he hopes the committee will find a strong candidate by December.

“I like to do these things quickly and get ahead of the pack,” he said.

Published on April 7, 2002 at 12:00 pm