Members of the Faculty and Friends of CASNR,

I have taken over for Dr. Linda Hoover as chair of the search committee to identify the next Dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. I want to thank Dr. Hoover for her service and the time and energy that she devoted to this effort.

The success of our efforts to identify a new dean rests with the entire faculty in CASNR and all of our constituents. The unique programs offered in your college and the breadth and depth of your research, along with our relationships with outside constituents make the position of Dean a challenging and exciting one. We must attract a candidate that can engage in development, lead the academic and research enterprise and represent the college to our industry friends and to our representatives at the state and national level.

Therefore, I am asking each of you to recruit and recommend individuals to the search committee who might meet our needs as dean. I am willing to visit potential candidates in their work places or invite any highly qualified candidate, who might need to experience TTU in order to pique his/her interest, to visit me on our campus. I will also be recruiting candidates at the upcoming NASULGC meeting. If you know of potential candidates who will be in attendance, I would be happy to speak to them there.

I am certain that you are all aware of the sensitive nature of a search of this magnitude and importance. I must remind all of you that information about candidates, or potential candidates, is confidential. Many individuals who are of the professional stature that we seek cannot afford to have their names associated with a search without them being in control of the information that is public. Please call my office directly if rumors about the search emerge. I pledge to keep you informed of all activity associated with the search short of divulging confidential information. Further, I assure you that once candidates are selected for public review you will have adequate opportunity for input before a final decision is made.

We are fortunate, as professionals, to be able to choose our colleagues and leaders in a way that fosters input and participation. I am asking you now to be fully engaged in creating a large and qualified candidate pool by promoting this position to the top leaders in your respective fields. We will be re-advertising the position in the outlets that you, through your department chairs, recommend. It is my hope that we can bring candidates to campus throughout the spring semester and have a name to recommend to President Whitmore by the end of the spring semester. I look forward to working with you on this very important project.

Sincerely,
William M. Marcy, PhD, PE
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs