3 final candidates for provost to visit YSU

By Harold Gwin

Students have been allotted time to meet with each of the candidates.

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State University’s search for a new provost and vice president of academic affairs has been narrowed down to three candidates who will be visiting the campus over the next week.

Dr. Joseph Edwards, dean of the College of Fine and Performing Arts and chairman of the search committee, said the university started with 39 qualified candidates, and the search committee conducted 14 off-campus interviews.

The top three “extremely qualified candidates” have been invited to visit campus and met with administrators, faculty, staff and students.

Dr. Linda Rae Markert, current dean of the School of Education at State University of New York at Oswego, N.Y., is on campus today.

Students will get a chance to meet with her at 1:30 p.m. today in the Trustees Room of Tod Hall.

Markert has had her current post since 1997 and previously served as chairwoman and professor of the Department of Technology at SUNY at Oswego from 1993 to 1997.

She has a doctor of education degree in educational administration from the University of the Pacific, Stockton, Calif.

Dr. Santos Hern °ndez, dean and professor of the School of Social Work at the University of Texas, Arlington, will be on campus Monday and Tuesday. Students can meet with him at 10:45 a.m. Monday in the Kilcawley Center Gallery.

He has been in his current post since 1998 and previously was professor and dean of the Worden School of Social Services at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas.

He has a doctorate in social work from the University of Denver.

Dr. Gerard Voland, dean of the College of Engineering, Technology and Computer Science at Indiana University–Purdue University, Fort Wayne, Ind., will visit campus next Thursday and Friday. Students will get a chance to speak with him at 1:30 p.m. next Friday in the Ohio Room of Kilcawley Center.

He has been in his current post since 2003 and previously was the dean of the Undergraduate College and associate vice president for Undergraduate Education at the Illinois Institute of Technology fro m 1999 to 2006.

He has a doctorate in engineering design from Tufts University.

Youngstown is looking for a successor to the late Dr. Robert K. Herbert, who died in a vacation accident in July 2007.

The provost serves as the university’s chief executive officer in the absence of the president.

gwin@vindy.com