Candidates for provost narrowed to 3 finalists

More than 60 people applied for the job.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A Youngstown State University search committee has selected three finalists for the vacant position of provost/vice president for academic affairs.
The post is the second highest job at the university, said Ron Cole, a YSU spokesman.
More than 60 people applied for the job, and the search committee held either video or telephone conferences with seven candidates, he said.
That list was reduced to three finalists.
Those three will each spend two days on campus meeting with YSU officials, faculty and students.
After the meetings, the search committee will rank the three finalists and submit that list to YSU President Dr. David Sweet. Sweet will recommend one person to the board of trustees for its approval.
Candidates
The finalists are:
U Robert Herbert, dean of liberal arts and professor of anthropology at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas.
Herbert is a former anthropology department chairman at the State University of New York at Binghamton, where he worked from 1979 to 2001. He was hired as a dean at the Texas university in 2001. He is the author of 10 books.
Herbert's two-day visit to YSU was to begin today.
U J. Robert Rossman, a professor and dean of the College of Applied Science and Technology at Illinois State University in Normal, Ill.
He's held academic positions at the University of Illinois, the University of North Texas and the University of Nevada Las Vegas. He served one year as the founding dean of UNLV's Greenspun College of Urban Affairs. He's been a dean at Illinois State since 1997. He is the lead author of a textbook on recreation programming.
His two-day visit begins Monday.
U Julia To Dutka, a professor of education and associate provost at Capital University in Columbus.
At Capital, she has oversight over numerous programs and leads the faculty in three universitywide initiatives. She was an associate professor at Montclair State University in New Jersey, a professor and dean at Baruch College in New York, and associate provost at Capital since April 2003.
Her two-day visit to YSU begins Wednesday.
Sweet could make a recommendation to the board at its June 24 meeting.
Tony Atwater resigned the post in January to become president of Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Bege Bowers has held the post on an interim basis since then.
Dean post
A separate search committee is in the process of ranking four candidates for the position of dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
The finalists are Tod Porter, YSU chairman of the economics department; Jim Mike, YSU associate dean of Arts and Sciences; Thomas McMillan, a professor of mathematics at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock; and Andrew Sustich, interim associate vice chancellor for research and technology at Arkansas State University.
An appointment to the job could come as early as next month.
skolnick@vindy.com