UI extends Tippie College of Business dean search until fall semester
After conducting three public forums and virtual tours with finalists, the search committee for the Tippie College of Business dean announced Thursday that it will extend its search until the fall.
The Pappajohn Business Building is seen on Monday, Nov. 12, 2018.
May 15, 2020
The University of Iowa shared Friday it has extended the Tippie College of Business dean search to allow candidates to have in-person visits during the fall semester, but it’s unclear what the decision means for the three finalists currently in the candidate pool.
Because of the COVID-19 outbreak, the search moved to an online format in late April and early May. Three public forums were open to the UI community as candidates Laku Chidambaram, Kurt Carlson, and Gerard Sanders presented their priorities for the college should they become dean via Zoom.
The candidates also participated in virtual tours of the UI campus alongside virtual forums. However, the committee decided in-person visits are preferable. Because of the uncertainty surrounding novel coronavirus and traveling, the committee had to push back in-person visits to the 2020-21 academic year.
Asked whether the current three candidates were still being considered or whether the search process was starting over, UI Assistant Vice President for External Relations Jeneane Beck said in an email to The Daily Iowan that the search committee is unsure which candidates will be invited and interviewed in the fall.
The UI had invited four finalists to participate in virtual forums and one pulled out before the university publicly identified the candidate.
“The search committee will determine the candidates invited to participate in person interviews in the fall,” she said. “That may include the candidates who participated in virtual campus visits this spring.”
Co-chairs of the search committee dean of the College of Engineering Alex Scranton and Tippie Professor Amy Colbert, the department executive officer of management and entrepreneurship, announced the decision to extend the dean search on Thursday. The committee has chosen search firm Witt-Kieffer to assist with the process.
Members of campus are currently able to submit nominations for the position. In a UI statement, the committee and UI Provost Montse Fuentes said the university will continue working to attract a diverse pool of candidates for the position.
“I am grateful to the search committee and to faculty and staff in the Tippie College of Business for their continued engagement in this important search,” Fuentes said.
This isn’t the only recent administrator search that has involved more than one round of candidate forums. In 2019, the UI had planned to hold more campus forums for a third round of dean of students candidates before waiving that search and permanently hiring Angie Reams, who had filled the role on an interim basis since January 2019.