Except not the kind with a fun theme/drinking games.

According to an email from Provost Coatsworth that was sent to SEAS students yesterday, the obligatory search for an official dean has commenced. While we don’t yet know what this means for Goldean, it turned out well for interim-cum-official Columbia College Deantini.

The search party’s timeline is vague for now, per Coatsworth’s email:

The Search Committee will begin reviewing candidates in October, but will continue to consider nominations and applications until the position is filled. We plan to hold a “Town Hall” meeting at SEAS soon to discuss the search, seek advice, and respond to questions. We will inform the SEAS community as soon as it is scheduled. And we plan to consult regularly with faculty members, including department chairs and other academic leaders, as well as students, alumni, and other friends of the School.

If you need some context to decide whether or not to file this under “BFD,” check out our guide to the admin’s year-long game of musical chairs.

September 7, 2012

Dear Members of the SEAS Community:

Welcome back to a new academic year. I am grateful to Professor Donald Goldfarb for agreeing to serve as Interim Dean during the 2012-13 academic year. I look forward to working with Don and the entire SEAS community to keep the school moving forward.

As you know, a search will soon get underway to identify a new dean of SEAS. President Bollinger has appointed a search committee to provide leadership for this effort. The Committee includes eight distinguished senior faculty (six from SEAS), two students (representing respectively the undergraduate and graduate students of the School), and the Chair of the SEAS Board of Visitors. I will chair the committee.

President Bollinger’s charge to the committee is broad. We will conduct a thorough canvass of potential candidates, both external as well as internal. Our goal will be to recommend to him an individual or individuals whom we believe to be exceptionally qualified to lead the School to new heights of success in research, teaching, and service, and thus in reputation. The Search Committee will begin reviewing candidates in October, but will continue to consider nominations and applications until the position is filled. We plan to hold a “Town Hall” meeting at SEAS soon to discuss the search, seek advice, and respond to questions. We will inform the SEAS community as soon as it is scheduled. And we plan to consult regularly with faculty members, including department chairs and other academic leaders, as well as students, alumni, and other friends of the School.

Meanwhile, on behalf of the Committee, I would like to invite every member of the SEAS community to communicate with the Committee or any of its individual members. We invite you to reflect on the current state of the school and its potential development and on the qualifications and qualities the Committee should be looking for in reviewing candidates. We also and particularly invite you to recommend individual candidates for the Committee to consider. You can forward comments and nominations to the Committee via email to seassearch@columbia.edu or send them by mail to SEAS Dean Search, c/o Provost John Coatsworth, 205 Low Library, MC 4313.

The members of the Search Committee (in alphabetical order) are:

Katayun Barmak, Philips Electronics Professor of Applied Physics and Applied

Mathematics

Raymond P. Daddazio, ’75 BS, ’76 MS, ’82, Eng.Sc.D., Chair of the SEAS Board of

Visitors (Weidlinger Associates, Inc.)

Jacob Fish, Robert A.W. and Christine S. Carleton Professor of Civil Engineering

Eitan Grinspun, Associate Professor of Computer Science

Tomás Guilarte, Leon Hess Professor of Environmental Health Sciences

Tony Heinz, David M. Rickey Professor of Optical Communications and Professor of

Physics

Andrew Kang, SEAS doctoral candidate (President, Engineering Graduate Student

Council)

Tim Qin, SEAS ’13 (President, Engineering Student Council)

David R. Reichman, Professor of Chemistry

Peter Schlosser, Vinton Professor of Earth and Environmental Engineering and Professor

of Earth and Environmental Sciences

Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, Mikati Foundation Professor of Biomedical Engineering and

Professor of Medical Sciences

I encourage you to become involved by sending comments, forwarding nominations and participating in the interview process when the candidate(s) come for visits.

With best wishes for the new academic year,

John H. Coatsworth

Provost