Four candidates remain in the search for the next dean of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

The final phase of the process brings each of the four candidates to campus to meet with faculty, administrative staff and students. The candidates remain on campus for two days and participate in a series of meetings, luncheons and interviews. The new dean will likely be in place by July 1, said William Banks, chair of the search committee and director of Syracuse University’s Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism.

The candidates are announced the week before they arrive on campus. One candidate will not be announced until the week of Feb. 21, as he or she will not visit campus until the first week of March.

Anil Deolalikar, professor of economics and associate dean of social sciences at the University of California Riverside, was the first candidate to visit campus, from Jan. 31 to Feb. 1. Gail Dubrow, professor of architecture, landscape architecture, public affairs and planning, and history at the University of Minnesota, visited campus from Feb. 7 to Feb. 8. Stephen Hanson, vice provost for global affairs at the University of Washington, is on campus from Monday to Tuesday.

Maxwell is the No. 1 graduate school for public affairs in the country. Mitchel Wallerstein left his position as dean in summer 2010 to become president of Baruch College, a City University of New York school. Since then, Michael Wasylenko has been serving as interim dean.

The search committee is made up of 22 people, Banks said. The group is mostly Maxwell faculty and staff members but also includes a graduate student, a representative from the College of Arts and Sciences, members of the Maxwell School Advisory Board and Lorraine Branham, dean of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

After the candidates visit, surveys will be administered among those who had a chance to interact with the candidates. Then the search committee will reconvene to discuss each candidate, as well as any formal and informal feedback it has gathered. The group will deliberate on the candidates’ strengths and weaknesses and present its final decisions to Vice Chancellor and Provost Eric Spina, who will make the final decision.

Leadership experience is the top quality the search committee is seeking in a potential dean, said Banks, chair of the search committee.

‘Maxwell is such a unique school that it takes a unique blend of talents to come in and be a strong and effective leader for the school,’ Banks said.

Fundraising experience is also a key quality in a potential dean, Branham said. Maxwell’s next dean must have a clear outlook on the direction of the school, including expanding the school’s international focus, she said.

Visiting campus is key because it’s a chance for candidates to meet the faculty they could potentially be working with, Branham said.

‘These are the people you’re going to be working with on a day-in and day-out basis, and those are the ones you’re hoping you can persuade that you’re the best candidate,’ said Branham, who went through a similar interview process in 2008 before she was hired as the dean of Newhouse.

Deolalikar, the candidate from UC Riverside who visited Jan. 31, said one of the most appealing parts of his visit was watching the interaction among students. Maxwell’s mix of undergraduate and graduate students, doctoral students and professional students combines for an appealing group, he said.

‘This creates a phenomenal synergy among all of these very, very different types of students, and that’s what I found incredibly exciting,’ Deolalikar said.

Dubrow, the candidate from the University of Minnesota who visited Feb. 7, touted the school’s reputation, commitment to Scholarship in Action and unique blend of programs as appealing qualities.

‘The specific configuration of Maxwell as both a professional school and home to a wide array of social science disciplines is a distinctive strength in a world where knowledge needs to be harnessed to action for public benefit,’ she said, in an e-mail.

Hanson, the candidate from the University of Washington, has been in back-to-back meetings while on campus and could not be reached for comment by press time.

kronayne@syr.edu

Published on February 14, 2011 at 12:00 pm