After Friday's announcement that he had accepted the offer to become dean of Ohio University's College of Arts and Sciences, effective today, Benjamin Ogles likened his 10-month stint as interim dean to a test drive of a car.
I kicked the tires
I looked under the hood I checked for rust Ogles said. The thing that I found is that there is excellence everywhere in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Ogles was the best in a field of 64 applicants, said OU Provost Kathy Krendl, who appointed the search committee to fill his position. Ogles is already held in high esteem by faculty and staff, she said.
Ben is a gifted leader who has earned the respect of his colleagues in the college and across the university
Krendl said.
OU President Roderick McDavis gave Ogles credit for helping increase student retention during his stint as interim dean, which began in May 2005 when Leslie Flemming left OU to pursue a master's degree in divinity at a Columbus seminary. As interim dean, Ogles was paid a salary of $128,073.
Ogles said one of his goals was to increase diversity in faculty hires. He has helped run 36 faculty searches since being named interim dean, stretching the college's budget to the limit, he said.
Even as interim dean
Ben was not content to be a caretaker
Krendl said.
Ogles also said he does not buy into the idea that only tenure-track faculty can be effective educators and that many non-tenure-track faculty are experienced and talented.
We have 10 Group II (non-tenure-track) faculty in (the English department)
he said. The most recent hire was 10 years ago. Let's broaden our notion of who's an excellent educator on the campus of Ohio University.
Prior to his time as interim dean, Ogles chaired the psychology department at OU, according to an OU Communications and Marketing press release. He has been at OU since 1990, when he joined the university as an assistant professor of psychology.
The selection of Ogles leaves two dean vacancies, both of which will be filled soon, said Martin Tuck, associate provost for academic affairs. The search committee for the College of Fine Arts, chaired by theater professor Charles Smith, will interview a final slate of three candidates in the next two weeks, he said.
The provost's office had aimed for the end of Winter Quarter as a rough date for the naming of the three deans, but took more time to maximize the return on advertisements run in trade journals designed to attract applicants, Tuck said.
It's pretty expensive to run these ads
so you don't want to have a real short time period to return the applications
he said.
The search for a College of Education dean is somewhat behind the others because the Chronicle of Higher Education did not publish during the winter holidays, delaying the advertisements for that position, Tuck said. That search committee has selected four candidates to interview, but the provost's office cannot release their names because they have not been informed of the interviews, he said.
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