Instead of making a recommendation to the provost at its Friday meeting, the dean search committee for UF's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences decided to gather faculty input for one more week.
After two of the four dean candidates dropped out within a week of each other, the search committee must decide whether to move forward with its remaining finalists or postpone the search.
The committee will make a final suggestion at its next meeting on Thursday at 5 p.m. in Room 307 in Weil Hall.
In their meeting Friday, committee members concluded it would be unfair to make a decision before UF faculty submitted feedback. Earlier in the search, faculty members were told they had until Wednesday to offer comments on the search and the candidates.
During the meeting, UF Provost Janie Fouke reiterated her concern that UF hasn't seen a broad enough field of candidates. The remaining candidates, Paul D'Anieri and Barbara Romzek, are both CLAS associate deans at the University of Kansas.
Committee members agreed that compiling an attractive resource package amid budget cuts was a concern from the start, and UF's recent administrative restructuring and Fouke's resignation pose new problems.
The latest candidate to withdraw from the search, Peter Coclanis, associate provost at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, dropped out after UF transferred academic budget operations from the Office of the Provost to Matt Fajack, UF's chief financial officer.
With Fouke set to resign June 30, committee members expressed concern that a prospective dean would want to negotiate with Fouke's replacement because that's with whom they'd be working.
However, it's unclear when an interim or permanent provost will be named. "The world is very different now from when you began your search," Fouke told the committee.
Pramod Khargonekar, chairman of the search committee and dean of the College of Engineering, said although the situation has changed, the committee's goal remains the same: to bring an "outstanding" dean to the CLAS.
"Everything is on the table," Khargonekar said after the meeting. "(Committee members) just want to do their work now."
