Dean search competitive
By BoNhia Lee Staff Writer© The Business Journal, Fresno, June 20, 2008
The search for an academic dean can be long and difficult and sometimes complicated by factors such as geography and pay.
But how difficult does a search for a university leader become when two nationally ranked business schools in the same geographic area lose both of their deans at the same time?
Earlier this month, Doug Hensler, Ph.D., resigned from the Craig School of Business at California StateUniversity, Fresno to become dean at the W. Frank Barton School of Business at Wichita State University.
The same week, Tom Campbell, Ph.D., resigned from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley to join the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP.
Now, both business schools are starting searches for new leaders at the same time. But that won’t necessarily mean that they will compete against each other for a dean or that either search will be impacted by the other because the schools are on two different levels, according to executive search firms.
“They’ll both have competition for deans, but only within their market niche,” said Alberto Pimental, managing partner with Storbeck/Pimental and Associates, Inc., an executive search firm based in Monterey Park. They specialize in recruiting for colleges, universities, independent schools and not-for-profit organizations.
Hensler was named the first holder of the Sid Craig Endowed Dean Chair at Fresno State in 2005. He has experience in international business and higher education.
While at FresnoState, Hensler was instrumental in expanding the reach of the school’s Business Advisory Council to include members from companies in Southern and Northern California. The BAC provides the school and its students with guidance and support.
Some of Hensler’s accomplishments while at Fresno include establishing the professor-in-residence program, Craig School Career Pathways and the Dr. Arnold and Dian Gazarian Real Estate Center.
The CraigSchool is a four-year comprehensive university that focuses on teaching more than research, whereas Berkeley is a top tier research university, Pimental said.
Berkeley will probably focus on finding a dean from the top 20 to 25 schools in the country, someone who has strengths in fundraising or research. Fresno State will probably look for someone who has a balance between research and teaching, he said.
“There really is no competitive disadvantage to either school even though both searches are going on at the same time,” Pimental said. “The reason for that is they are completely different types of schools.”
The Craig School of Business, particularly its graduate program, was voted one of the 45 best business schools in the country for the first time in 2007 by The Princeton Review.
The Haas School of Business has consistently ranked among the top business schools and was voted the third-best business school with career prospects by The Princeton Review that same year.
Berkeley is a world-class business school with a global reputation and Campbell, a former congressman and the resigning dean, was regarded as a world-class business school dean, said John Fernandes, president and chief executive officer of The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.
The AACSB is the premier accrediting agency for bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs in business administration and accounting.
“They’ll have to go shopping long and hard for someone to maintain the quality of the school, the visibility of the school and the visibility of the deanship,” Fernandes said about the HaasSchool where Campbell has been dean since 2002.
Berkeley’s ranking and its reputation will likely result in a broader dean search compared to Fresno State.
Although a reputable business school, FresnoState differs from Berkeley because itis part of the California State University system, which has strong controls over what it pays deans and it also has the highest turnover rate of deans, Fernandes said.
The turnover rate for business deans in the Cal State System has been high in the last six of the eight years that Fernandes has been president and CEO of AACSB because of the pay.
Many west coast business deans have moved to the east coast because the market pays higher for business dean faculty, Fernandes said.
“It’s a tough system,” Fernandes said.
Gary Kaplan, president of Gary Kaplan & Associates, an executive search firn in Pasadena, said that FresnoState’s search for a dean could be impacted by Berkley’s search if both schools are looking for similar candidates.
“If they are looking for like-qualifications or somewhat like-qualifications a lot of deans will be getting calls on both jobs,” said Kaplan whose firm worked with Fresno State in the past.
Kaplan’s firm was hired to search for an executive director and associate director for the Central Valley Health Policy Institute, which is part of the College of Health and Human Services.
What makes this search challenging for Fresno is geography, according to Kaplan.
“If someone is coming from a cosmopolitan institution, the odds are they may be attracted to Berkeley more than to Fresno,” Kaplan said. “That’s the reality. UC Berkeley has a little more panache and a little more pedigree. It will complicate things somewhat for Fresno State.”
But Kaplan said it is important to remember that when conducting a dean search the odds are that there are multiple openings around the country for academic deans. That means that universities are used to dealing with the fact that other institutions are also searching at the same time.
“You rarely have the opportunity to look (for a dean) on an exclusive basis,” Kaplan said.
For Fresno State there really is no competition. Officials are confident that the school will find a good candidate for the dean position which Hensler has held since 2005.
“FresnoState has a good reputation and I know in the past when I participated in (search committees) we had really good candidates,” said Dan Doyle, chairman of the Business Advisory Council for the Craig School. Doyle is also president and CEO of Central Valley Community Bank.
The BAC is made up of Central Valley businesses members who work with the school to better prepare students for employment after graduation.
Doyle said the search process is very thorough and the important factor is getting “the right match of someone who has the credentials as well as the desire to live here in the Central Valley.”
In the meantime, provost and vice president Jeri Echeverria appointed Dr. Robert M. Harper, the current assistant dean, to serve as interim dean effective June 16.
“We are just beginning the extensive groundwork to start a search for a new dean of the Craig School, and that process will take some time,” Echeverria said. “No matter when we begin, I’m confident the search will bring us stellar candidates who are aware of the Craig School’s excellent reputation.”
