Liberal Arts candidates to speak in May
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The three internal candidates to serve as dean of Purdue University's College of Liberal Arts for a three-year appointment will participate in open forums during the week of May 1."Deciding on three internal candidates to consider for liberal arts dean was a difficult decision because there were several talented nominees," said Jeffrey Vitter, dean of the College of Science and search committee chair. "Selecting one from this highly qualified group will be even more difficult. The search committee actively requests feedback from faculty, staff and students to help choose from these three individuals — all of whom are very respected scholars, researchers and leaders."
The candidates are John Contreni, professor of history and dean of the Graduate School; Tom Templin, professor and head of the Department of Health and Kinesiology; and Irwin (Bud) Weiser, professor and head of the Department of English. Each will meet with search committee members, other deans, department heads, directors of interdisciplinary studies, members of the diversity action committee, Provost Sally Mason and President Martin C. Jischke.
The candidates also will participate in 90-minute open forums. The candidates will briefly talk about their vision for the College of Liberal Arts, and the majority of the forum will be allocated for questions and discussion. The search committee will review the feedback before making its recommendation to the provost and president, who will select the new dean. The appointment is then subject to approval by the university's board of trustees.
The times for the open forums are:
• Contreni, Monday (May 1) from 2:15-3:45 p.m. in Stewart Center, Room 322.
• Templin, Tuesday (May 2) from 9:30-11 a.m. in the Purdue Memorial Union's East Faculty Lounge.
• Weiser, Thursday (May 4) from 2:15-3:45 p.m. in Stewart Center, Room 322.
Contreni has served as dean of the Graduate School since June 2004. Prior to that he was interim dean, and he served as assistant dean of Purdue's School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education (now the College of Liberal Arts) from 1981-85, as interim head of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures from 1983-85, and as head of the Department of History from 1985-97. He currently serves on the university's promotions committee. After serving as department head, he returned full time to teaching and research. Contreni is an expert on Charlemagne and Carolingian Europe.
Templin has been head of the Department of Health and Kinesiology since 1996. Before that he was director of Purdue's Division of Recreational Sports. Templin was a teacher and coach in the Bloomington, Ind., public schools from 1972-74. He came to Purdue in 1977, and in 1988 he was named director of the Division of Recreational Sports. He also has served as assistant vice president for student services.
Weiser has been head of the Department of English since 2002. He has been teaching and administering introductory writing programs, including development writing, at Purdue since 1981. His primary area of interest is composition pedagogy, and he has focused his graduate teaching on topics such as writing across the curriculum, writing assessment and composition research methods.
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.
The Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences is ranked nationally for its graduate programs. The Department of Communication also is recognized nationally for its organizational, health and interpersonal areas.
The college is home to 13 interdisciplinary programs: African-American studies, American studies, Asian studies, classical studies, comparative literature, film studies, Italian studies, Jewish studies, linguistics, medieval studies, philosophy and literature, religious studies, and women's studies.
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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