After a month-long search, Thomas Baldino has been named the Interim Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences following Linda Winkler’s assumption of the role of special assistant to the provost and director of International Outreach.
In an email to faculty and staff last month, Interim Provost Therese Wignot announced that Baldino had assumed the role of interim dean.
Associate professor of performing arts Joe Dawson will leave as chair of the Performing Arts Department to take on the role of associate dean.
Associate Professor of Performing Arts Steven Thomas has assumed the role of chair of the performing arts department.
Wignot said a search for a permanent dean of the college will begin in fall 2015.
Baldino had previously served as interim dean of the school from 2009 to 2010 before Winkler’s appointment as dean in August 2010. Baldino said having been the dean of the college before, he has some experience and should be a little better prepared for whatever occurs during his second time as Interim Dean.
“Experience is useful and while I one can never exactly predict the future, some things are likely to be the same. The dean signs independent study forms, the dean reviews sabbatical proposals and tenure candidacies,” Baldino said. “But there are always things that occur that one cannot predict and my tendency is to work towards a solution.”
Some of Baldino’s goals for the college include working with the chairs and faculty in the college to build enrollment, helping to build programs, looking for creative ways to take existing courses or programs and create something new and helping to raise money for programs in the school.
However, his most immediate goal is to get through the rest of the semester as he is still teaching four courses in addition to managing the responsibilities as Interim Dean.
“My short-term goal is to survive the next eight weeks,” Baldino said. “Come January I hope to have a better perspective on things and move forward on some of these (initiatives).”
Dawson said his new role is one that is he and Baldino are still trying to figure out, although he will be responsible for making sure the school’s goals established by the dean are met.
“For right now it’s a transition period,” Dawson said. “I’m just waiting to see how it evolves, it’s really very new.”
Next semester Baldino hopes to hold more meetings with faculty in the school at the departmental level to get a sense of each department’s needs and a sense of what faculty, particularly the non-tenured faculty, are concerned about.
“It’s all about making sure that the faculty who are in the classroom have the resources that they need to teach their courses,” Baldino said.