The process of appointing new deans for the Fuqua School of Business and the School of Law is on track as committees at both schools near the end of their national searches, officials confirmed Monday.
"I'm really pleased with the progress on those searches," Provost Peter Lange said.
Dean search committee officials from the schools confirmed that they would nominate three candidates each to Lange and President Richard Brodhead by mid-December. The provost and the president will then make a final decision using the recommendations from each committee.
Officials declined to comment, however, on specific candidates who are under consideration.
In addition to the searches underway at Fuqua and the law school, Lange said a search committee will be formed later this month to fill the vacancy left by William Schlesinger, dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, who announced his decision to step down Nov. 27.
The departures of Schlesinger, Law School Dean Katherine Bartlett and Fuqua Dean Douglas Breeden will be effective June 2007.
The law school's search committee has currently winnowed down its number of possible candidates to "under half a dozen," said James Cox, Brainerd Currie Professor of Law and chair of the law school dean search committee.
Christine Moorman, T. Austin Finch Senior Professor of Marketing and chair of the Fuqua dean search committee, said the committee has three candidates remaining and is in the process of evaluating each of them.
Since the summer, each committee has been condensing a list of possible nominees while simultaneously conducting an extensive screening process of those candidates, Moorman and Cox said.
The national search for the dean replacements has involved both internal and external nominees, but no preference is being given to either group, Lange said.
Cox noted that the previous two deans at the law school were internal nominees, but he added that this did not mean the newest dean would be from Duke.
"Maybe it's time for change, but there's no strong leaning one way or another," he said.
Since the Fuqua committee has already arrived at a tentative list of three candidates, Moorman said the committee was in the process of bringing nominees to campus prior to the submission of the short list to the provost and the president.
"They go through a two-day intensive experience, [including] a public address, meeting with students, with staff members, with various members of the Duke community," she said.
Moorman added that one candidate was on campus Monday meeting with community members and administration, although she declined to release the name of the particular nominee. Cox said he expects Lange and Brodhead to make a prompt decision after the law school nomination committee delivers its short list, although he said he was unaware of a specific timetable.
"I would hope this would be a wonderful Christmas present for the faculty, or a wonderful Hanukkah present," he said.
Like Cox, Moorman said she expects the administration to move quickly in its decision to be competitive with other business schools conducting searches for new deans, including the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"We've been out early in the process, we think we're sort of ahead of the game," Moorman said. "So my guess is that [Lange and Brodhead] will attempt to retain that time advantage."
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