Two more YSU deans in job hunts



DePoy
By Denise Dick
Youngstown
Two more high-level Youngstown State University officials are job hunting.
Shearle Furnish, who’s been the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences for nine years, and Bryan DePoy, dean of the College of Creative Arts and Communication since 2009, both have been finalists for positions at other universities.
DePoy is one of three finalists to be dean of the University of Maine College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He couldn’t be reached.
Furnish was a finalist for the provost position at West Virginia State University. He said he didn’t get that job but has applied to be provost and vice president for academic affairs at YSU.
Furnish said he wants to progress in his career and he’s at a time “where I do this now or not at all” in order to give significant years of service to a new job.
The two deans are the latest at YSU to leave or consider leaving in recent weeks.
Former President Randy J. Dunn resigned last month after only eight months on the job to become president of Southern Illinois University.
Ikram Khawaja, now interim president, who has been provost and vice president for academic affairs since 2008, plans to retire June 30.
Gene Grilli, vice president for finance and administration, left last month for another position.
Martin Abraham, dean of the College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, is a finalist to be provost at Northern Illinois University. He said he also planned to apply for the YSU presidency.
Of the 11 administrators in YSU’s Academic Affairs Division, four have either been finalists for other jobs or plan to retire.
YSU is searching for a new president with a concurrent search underway for a new provost and vice president for academic affairs. The application deadline for the presidency is April 14, and the plan is to have a new president in place by June 30.
That person then would be able to provide input into the selection of the new provost. April 22 is the deadline for applications for the provost post.