Students consider applicants for new department head
The political science department held external tryouts for someone to fill the position of department head after Bobbi Herzberg concludes her five-year term.
“It is a difficult job to be department head and I am sure Dr. Herzberg is eager to get back to other things, such as research,” said assistant department head of political science Michael Lyons. “Ultimately, the decision of who becomes the new department head is with the provost and the dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. They decided it was a good idea for the department to bring in a department head from another university.”
Lyons said they first establish a committee to facilitate the hiring processes. Together, the committee writes a basic job description and publishes the job application in prominent material like The Chronicle of Higher Education. After a certain amount of time, they close the application and the committee screens all applicants, reviews the written material and narrows it down to three candidates. The candidates are then invited to visit USU’s campus for two days in which they will give two presentations. One presentation is for an undergraduate class while the other is a research presentation given to faculty, staff and graduate students.
Associate Dean of HASS and professor of philosophy Charlie Huenemann, said, “The job of the committee is to manage the whole search process, call references, escort the candidate and be available to talk to the candidate.”
All of the candidates are current political science educators. One is a professor at Baylor University, another is an associate professor at the University of Georgia and the last is the senior associate dean at Florida International University.
“These are three great scholars and great teachers,” Huenemann said. “We want scholars and teachers so we want to make sure they are good in the classroom, meaning they are able to connect with the students and communicate.”
Lyons also emphasized the importance of students’ reactions to the presentations.
Lyons said, “We ask the students opinions. That is why we do classroom presentations; we gauge student’s reaction because their impression is important to us.”
Klydi Brower Heywood, a freshman dual majoring in political science and speech communication, was able to hear two of the candidates give their presentations.
“I liked one candidate over the other because one seemed really tense and professional, and the other was really confident and comfortable,” Heywood said. “I think being confident and comfortable is needed to be the department head.”
Caleb Welch, a sophomore majoring in political science, also had the chance to hear two of the candidates speak.
“I thought one of the candidates was really good at speaking,” Welch said. “Every now and again there was an awkward pause, but that could have been nerves. I thought the other candidate was unappealing.”
Along with listening to the opinions of the students, the voices of the whole political science department are heard.
“As a search committee we try to gather information from everyone the candidates talk to: students, faculty, deans and provosts,” Huenemann said.
Lyons explained that after all the candidates have visited campus and presented, the committee gives their recommendations and the dean and the provost ultimately decide to whom they will offer the position.
The political science department expects to receive the decision from the dean and provost within a month.
Lyons said in deciding who to hire, they focus on if the candidate is interested in teaching and research, as well as what their specialization is, in order to have a well-balanced faculty with different areas of expertise. The department wants to cover every sub-field of political science and does not want to duplicate what an existing faculty member does well.
He said they are hiring outside of the department because the administration believes it will strengthen the department to bring outside experience from other institutions. However, he did say it can be potentially difficult to hire an outsider.
“Sometimes it is hard to judge what a person will be like in an administrative position based on written documents and a two-day interview,” Lyons said.
Huenemann said the reason the department looks outside to hire can vary. Their specific department wants to hire a full professor as department head because they have a research background.
“Being a department head takes a lot of time and energy and if you are at associate level it will delay promotion to full,” Huenemann. “Bobbi Herzberg has been a great department head and at the same time she is an associate professor and wants to focus on research to get to full.”
Lyons said the department is not forced to choose from these three candidates. He said if none of the candidates meet expectations then they will most likely appoint a one-year department head and find someone for the next year. Lyons also said he is confident that they will assess the candidates properly and come up with a good department head from these three well-qualified candidates.
“Although hiring someone is never foolproof, I have a high level of confidence,” Lyons said.
Huenemann said: “Everyone I have talked to is very pleased about how this search has gone. All the candidates are leaving impressed by what USU does and we are impressed by them. They are great scholars and teachers and we know the future of the political science department will be in good hands.”
– kayla.barclay@aggiemail.usu.edu