Committee continues J-School dean search

IU-Bloomington Interim Chancellor Ken Gros Louis said he is reopening the School of Journalism dean search after the search committee couldn't agree on any of the three finalists. The search will be continued into the 2004-05 academic year in hopes of finding the school faculty and search committee's consensus on an acceptable candidate to replace retiring dean Trevor Brown, Gros Louis said. \nIn the meantime, Brown will postpone retirement and remain the school's dean for the upcoming academic year after being asked by Gros Louis, the chancellor said.\nGros Louis met with the faculty Friday and voted not to extend an offer to three previous candidates who had all come to visit the University.\nThe search committee, which was supposed to make a recommendation to Gros Louis, could not come to a majority consensus on a finalist between the three candidates Lori Bergen of Kansas State University, Ted Gup of Case Western Reserve University and Stephen Reese of the University of Texas at Austin.\nIn a confidential report to the Chancellor about two weeks ago, the search committee recommended to bypass the three candidates and reopen the search, said Chairperson of the search committee and Professor of Journalism and American Studies David Nord.\nNord is a candidate to head the new search committee. \n"The journalism faculty needs to decide the emphasis and focus of what kind of dean they want to have," Gros Louis said.\nThe Chancellor will form the search committee soon and pick new members. The committee, which had featured 16 members, will likely be between 12 to 14 people and will consist of students, faculty and staff, Gros Louis said.\nThe last committee featured seven faculty members from Bloomington, one from Indianapolis, two students, two journalism staff members, one alumni representative and three faculty members from other units around the Bloomington campus.\nThe new committee will likely differ because a handful of professors are returning from sabbatical, including Owen Johnson, Randy Beam and David Boeyink, who could be included into the new committee.\nGros Louis will again take recommendations from the committee, saying three candidates is a good number.\n"There are a number of journalism dean vacancies," Gros Louis said. "The (committee) wants to start to get ahead of the curve."\nIf the committee forms soon, Gros Louis said there could conceivably be candidates recommended sometime during the fall semester. Gros Louis hopes the committee will form by Wednesday. \nBrown came to IU as a faculty member in 1972 and has served as the journalism school dean since 1985. He had planned to retire since fall 2003. Brown spoke to Gros Louis during the search process and said prior to Friday's meeting, which he did not attend, he would accept the dean's position for an additional year if no suitable candidate could be found.\nBrown was named a member of the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame Saturday and is a member of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies' board of trustees.\nBrown said next year will be his last.\n"I will retire at the end of next year," Brown said. "I have no firms plans for when I retire because it's kind of far off now. But I'll continue to stay involved in some organizations, like the Poynter Institute."\nAssistant Professor of Journalism Michael Evans has served on the journalism school's faculty since 1999. Evans said the school will not miss a beat even though the dean search did not go as planned.\n"I would not call (the dean search) a failure," Evans said. "We merely could not come to a consensus on a single candidate. So we'll restart the search and cast a wider net this time."\nNord said reopening a search process happens from time to time.\n"We felt that none of the three were the right fit for us," Nord said. "We felt we should continue to look because we think we can find someone who is a better fit for us. I'm hopeful we'll have a new committee put together soon. I'm pleased that Dean Brown is able to stay."\nStaff writer Michael Zennie contributed to this story.\n-- Contact sports editor John Rodgers at jprodger@indiana.edu.