College of Education and Human Services appoints new dean
A new dean, Dr. Beth Foley, was appointed for the College of Education and Human Services after serving as interim dean since June. Foley will be instated after approval from the USU Board of Trustees next month.
Foley, who recently served as department head of the communicative disorders and deaf education department, said she had not planned on becoming dean.
“When I agreed to be interim dean I planned to go back to being department head … but I had a really good summer. I started doing what the previous dean had done which is meeting with all the untenured faculty and seeing what they’re doing, what their research interests are, how they’re doing and I really enjoyed it. And it made me see the breadth of research activities that are going on across the college,” Foley said.
Foley will be replacing former dean Carol Strong, who retired in May after a 30-year career at Utah State. Provost Raymond Coward said that Strong retired because she and her husband wanted more time to themselves.
Foley said, “Carol Strong was an exceptional Dean and no one in the College, including me, wanted to see her retire. During her tenure as Dean the College maintained its position in the top 2 percent of 1,200 Colleges of Education nationally, and faculty productivity was at an all time high. It is daunting to follow a dean who was so successful and so widely admired and respected.” Foley said while it will be difficult to follow Strong, it will be an exciting challenge for her to keep the momentum going.
Gretchen Peacock, head of the psychology department, served on the search committee responsible for finding a new dean. She said a dean needs to have a good working relationship with department heads and a working relationship with central administration, which she felt Foley had.
“A really important thing for me was the relationships I had with other department heads, the provost and the president,” Foley said. “Knowing the people that I was working with helped make the transition a lot easier.”
Peacock said since Foley’s appointment as interim dean, she has been impressed with her zest for fundraising, her ability to build consensus and her enthusiasm for the college in general.
Foley said one of the challenges facing the college now is trying to do more despite reduced state support. She said because there is less state funding than there used to be, the college has to find other ways to fund programs. She said last year the college generated more than $33 million in extramural funding for research and clinical programs.
“For a college of education that’s astonishing,” she said. “I think we were ranked fourth in the nation out of 1,200 Colleges of Education in terms of the amount of money our faculty generated.”
Foley said she gained valuable financial experience while serving as a department head. “We had some fiscal crises going on in the department when I first started and we were able to, as a department, turn that around, and the department grew from I think 15 or 18 people to 40 people,” she said. “I think being a department head for six years was really, really helpful.
Foley said that she is excited to work as dean of the college, but there are a few anticipated drawbacks.
“I do have a lot less contact with students, and that’s the one thing I’m mourning a little bit,” she said. She said while serving as department head she continued to teach several courses because of her love for teaching. “That’s been kind of a tough thing to let go of. I tell myself that I’m helping students in a different way, but it’s not the same.”
She said she will also have to stop working on the Sound Beginnings program in the Early Childhood Center with colleague Carl White.
“That’s another thing that I miss,” she said. She said the biggest change will be balancing work and family.
Provost Raymond Coward said, “Dean Foley is an experienced higher education leader who is able to communicate the quality and magnitude of the truly outstanding research and education that is underway in the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services. She is a tireless worker who will help that college achieve new heights of success. She has the confidence and support of a wide-range of faculty and a clear vision of where that college is going. She will continue and extend the great successes that were achieved under Dean Strong.”
“We have an incredible college,” Foley said. “It’s fun to be dean of a college like this one.”
– robjepson@live.com