The Pforzheimer Honors College held community-wide open forum meetings with the candidates to the position of Founding Dean at Kessel Student Center during March.

The first meeting took place on March 3, with Dr. Lisa Dolling, currently Dean of the College of Arts and Letters at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ. Dolling emphasized her suitability for the position and discussed her background in philosophy of science. She holds degrees from Fordham, Manhattanville College, and the Graduate Center at the City University of New York.

The second candidate, Dr. Kathy Cooke, visited the Pleasantville campus on March 10. She is currently the director of the Honors program at Quinnipiac University. Cooke discussed her curricular and co-curricular initiatives, and mentioned the challenges and opportunities that the position at Pace represented for her. She has a Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago.

The third meeting was held on March 24. The candidate, Dr. Susan Dinan, discussed her background in history and her interest in the unique challenge that Pace’s two campuses offer. She holds degrees from Cornell, the University of Washington, and the University of Wisconsin.

Some of the prevailing issues during the Q-and-A sections of the meetings among faculty, staff, and students were how the candidate would divide her time between Pleasantville and the city campus—the answers pointed to a 50/50 divide and by necessity—, the candidate’s retention efforts, and how the candidate would handle a dean position with no faculty under her.

Besides the open forums, Honors students and staff had the opportunity to have lunch with each of the candidates on the day of the meetings.

“Lunch was a good idea, it definitely showed how the new Dean would communicate with students in a casual setting, instead of just interviewing each other,” freshman Lexi Parisi said.

An issue that was particularly raised by students at both the lunches and the meetings was what the candidates consider the purpose of a university education to be, and how the Honors College can contribute to this purpose. Students showed interest in a university experience that goes beyond “job training and resume building,” junior Jessica Alba said.

There were about 75 applicants; the search committee then narrowed it down to six candidates by December of last year, according to School of Education Professor Shobana Musti, who is part of the search committee. The search committee was comprised of faculty members from various disciplines in both the Manhattan and the Pleasantville campuses.

The six candidates left had a telephone interview, and, after that, four candidates had semi-final interviews with the Provost and the search committee. From these, the three finalists were selected.

“We wanted someone with extensive experience running honors programs,” Musti said. “We wanted someone who communicated a vision of what the Honors program should be like, someone who had experience with recruitment and retention (…); a dynamic, inspiring leader.”

The search committee is expected to submit a recommendation to the university’s Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Uday Sukhatme, who will then select the Honors College Dean.