Liberal Arts dean candidates to visit Purdue in March

"The Liberal Arts Dean Search Committee has carefully selected three individuals to visit campus to meet with administrators, faculty, staff and students," said Jeffrey Vitter, dean of the College of Science and search committee chair. "These forums provide the public an important opportunity to meet and hear the candidates."

During their campus visits, the candidates will present two public talks — an open forum presentation and a scholarly seminar. During the first presentation, the candidates will talk about their vision for the College of Liberal Arts, while the seminar forum will focus on their areas of expertise.

Audience members can ask questions at both forums, and evaluation forms also will be available for those attending to fill out. The search committee will review the feedback before making its recommendation to Provost Sally Mason, who will select the new dean. The appointment is then subject to approval by the university's board of trustees.

The candidates and their talks are:

• Wojtek Chodzko-Zajko (pronounced Voy-TEK hod-sko ZY-ko), professor and head of the Department of Kinesiology and Community Health and chair of the Campus Initiative on Aging at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He will participate in an open forum from 4:15-5:30 p.m. on March 2 in the Purdue Memorial Union Faculty Lounges. The scholarly seminar is 9:45-10:45 a.m. on March 3 in Stewart Center, Room 206.

• Jeanette Altarriba, professor of psychology and associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Albany, State University of New York. She will participate in an open forum from 4:15-5:30 p.m. on March 6 in Stewart Center's Loeb Playhouse. The scholarly seminar is 9:45-10:45 a.m. on March 7 in Stewart Center, Room 206.

• Michael McGerr, the Paul V. McNutt Professor of History and adjunct professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Indiana University. He will participate in an open forum from 4:15-5:30 p.m. on March 8 in Stewart Center's Loeb Playhouse. The scholarly seminar is 2:15-3:05 p.m. on March 9 in Stewart Center, Room 206.

The candidates' vitas and vision statements are available online.

Tom Adler is currently serving as interim dean of the college. With more than 6,100 undergraduate and 1,100 graduate students at Purdue's West Lafayette campus, the College of Liberal Arts is one of Purdue's largest. The college encompasses 11 academic departments: communication; English; foreign languages and literatures; health and kinesiology; history; philosophy; political science; psychological sciences; sociology and anthropology; speech, language, and hearing sciences; and visual and performing arts.

Writer: Amy Patterson Neubert, (765) 494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu

Source: Jeffrey Vitter, (765) 494-1730, jsv@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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