YSU to announce new deans for colleges of health, fine arts

By Harold Gwin

Search committees for two posts have sent their lists of finalists to the provost.

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State University could have two new college deans in place within a week.

Provost Ikram Khawaja, who will make the appointments, said searches for the posts of dean of the Bitonte College of Health and Human Services and the College of Fine and Performing Arts have been narrowed and announcements of the appointments to the two posts could come jointly next week.

Dean Joseph Edwards of the College of Fine and Performing Arts is retiring, and the search team looking for candidates for his post submitted the names of four finalists to the provost about two weeks ago, said Chairman Paul Kobulnicky. About two dozen applications were received.

“We presented commentaries on all four,” Kobulnicky said, adding that all four were also brought to campus to meet and speak with the campus community.

Khawaja said that he has consulted with the Cabinet and others, and the university has made a verbal offer to one of the four candidates. He declined to name that person until a contract is signed.

The four finalists for the job are: Bruce Brockman, chairman of the Department of Theatre in the Peck School of the Arts at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; Roger Chandler, head of the Department of Fine and Graphic Arts at Northwestern State University of Louisiana; Bryan DePoy, interim dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Southeastern Louisiana University; and Thomas Loughlin, professor of theatre and dance at the State University of New York, Fredonia.

John Yemma retired as dean of the Bitonte College of Health and Human Services, and Janice Elias, chair of the Department of Human Ecology, has been serving as interim dean of the college.

The search committee for that post, headed by Dean Shearle Furnish of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, narrowed the field of nine candidates to two, including one already employed by YSU, and presented those names to the provost a week ago.

Both recently met with the campus community.

Khawaja said the two candidates have been reviewed and he expects to reach a decision by the first of next week.

The finalists are: Joseph Mosca, current associate dean of the college, and O. Matthew Adeyanju, director of the School of Public Health Sciences and Professions at Ohio University.

gwin@vindy.com