After losing a number of deans and administrators in the last few years, the University will have yet another position to fill beginning next year.
Honors College Dean Nancy Clark announced Thursday that she will step down in July to return to teaching and research.
University Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Stuart Bell said that Clark had been mulling over the idea of leaving the position for several months before making her decision last week.
“Ten years is a long time for a dean — I was a dean for 10 years, so I can tell you,” Bell said. “There’s a time where you achieve all the goals you have set for the college, and that’s when it’s time to step aside and let someone else set the next set of goals.”
Clark is the latest in a series of deans, assistant deans and administrators who have left their positions in the last two years.
Since 2012, deans of the colleges of Agriculture, Arts and Science, Veterinary Medicine, Business and Music and Dramatic Arts, as well as the Dean of Libraries have stepped down from their positions or announced their plans to step down. Four administration officials have also announced intentions to leave their position.
Bell said the administration is not worried about the trend of high-position officials leaving their posts, and that it is a natural part of running a university.
“That’s just how it works at any institution,” Bell said. “We look at this as an opportunity to bring great individuals to the University.”
Though a search committee to identify Clark’s replacement has not yet been formed, Bell said the process has begun and the administration hopes to have someone in place by the time Clark steps down in July.
Clark will attend a conference of honors college deans and directors from across the country this week. Bell said the University wanted to announce Clark’s intention to step down before the conference so that Clark could mention the soon-to-be-open position to her colleagues.
Bell said the University will look at both University and external candidates for the position, because the administration staff in the Honors College is relatively small.
“The likelihood of having someone there who wants the position is fairly small,” Bell said. “[A replacement] doesn’t have to be external, but we want to be as inclusive as possible.”
Clark has overseen the expansion of several Honors College programs since taking the deanship in 2003, arriving from California Polytechnic State University, where she was a professor of history and the director of the honors program.
Bell said Clark’s best work as dean was to improve student access to services such as one-on-one advising for internships, study abroad program and fellowship opportunities for graduate students.
Under her deanship, more than 90 Honors College students have won national awards and honors over the last eight years, and the average incoming student’s ACT score increased to 31.