Students from the School of Journalism and Graphic Communication have selected a student to represent their school on the search committee for a new dean.
After students voiced concerns about the lack SJGC student representation had on the committee to Provost Larry Robinson at an all school colloquium, which was held October 9, Robinson postponed the original date of the deadline to form a search committee to accommodate adding a SJGC student.
The SJGC search subcommittee, a group of self-selected students who will have a voice in the selection process, chose Brooke Hobbs, a senior public relations student from Gainesville, to serve on the search committee for the new dean.
“It’s important to be a representation of our students,” she said.
Robinson previously told The Famuan a senator from the SGA would be selected to represent students on the committee.
However, some students have concerns on why a journalism student was not selected to be on the committee.
“I felt like students should have some input in who the dean of our school should be,” said LaShaun Williams, a senior public relations student from Miami. “We just wanted to know who the dean would be and not have anyone pop up on us.”
Williams also took the initiative to ask students who were interested in the position to meet after the colloquium and give her their contact information.
Williams said that the students who were interested met that night in the library, voted on who would sit on the committee, and formed their own subcommittee in which concerns of students from most sequences in the SJGC would be voiced. The subcommittee consists of students representing the four Division of Journalism sequences and one student from Division of Graphic Communication.
Robinson said faculty members, administration and a student will be on the search committee and the process is slowly working its way through the system.
“They have a responsibility of taking whatever number of applicants come in and screening the applicants,” Robinson said.
After reviewing the applicants, the committee will come up with three and Robinson will make the decision as to who will be the next dean.
Timing is up in the air because applications must begin rolling in before decisions are made. Robinson said he is hoping to make a decision around January and February.
Hobbs said the committee is looking for a dean who will be able to deal with the controversies surrounding the SJGC right now.
“The person we select has got to be capable of leading us not only into a new building, but in the new direction communications is moving,” she said.
Williams credited Robinson for allowing journalism and graphic communication students to participate in the selection process of their new dean.
“This would not have been possible if the provost did not care about the interest of out students,” said Williams. “He showed excellence with caring.”
Crystyn C. Wright can be reached at Journey_copyeditor@yahoo.com.