Dean, School of Arts and Sciences

Westminster College seeks a Dean, School of Arts and Sciences
Click here to view position profile: https://summitsearchsolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/WestminsterCollege_DeanArtsSciences_Profile.pdf
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah

The Position:
The School of Arts and Sciences seeks a leader who demonstrates and promotes its innovative, research-based approach to pedagogy and its highly engaged, learner-centered environment. An effective dean is an articulate, enthusiastic, experienced listener and communicator. The dean will inspire creativity and collaboration among faculty; assess and respond to faculty and staff needs within institutional and budgetary parameters; and exercise sound judgment in thoughtfully hiring, guiding, and evaluating faculty while facilitating program development.

The Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences reports to the Provost and is part of an academic affairs leadership team that involves the school deans and the provost, as well as an extended campus leadership team that involves the school deans, the senior college leadership, and faculty, staff, and student leadership. The School of Arts and Sciences has approximately 12 full-time office, laboratory, and performing arts staff members. The Senior Assistant Dean directly supervises the staff and partners with the dean to provide strategic administrative leadership and implementation of the operational functions of the school.

The dean is responsible for the School’s $8.1M budget and will be involved in many exciting opportunities over the next few years: the opening of Gillmor Hall, a major expansion of the Jewett Center for the Performing Arts; implementation of the outcomes of campus master planning; leadership and support for Westminster at 150 efforts; restructuring of academic programs; and participation in a capital campaign timed with the sesquicentennial.

The college values candidates who have demonstrated a commitment to educational equity, promoting diversity, inclusion, and the cultivation of respectful teaching and learning environments that contribute to the success of all students, including those from historically underrepresented racial and ethnic groups and students of diverse cultural, socioeconomic, (dis)ability, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, religious, and transnational backgrounds.

Responsibilities:
The dean is expected to provide leadership in the following areas:

• Mission, goals, and strategy - The dean works with faculty and staff to articulate, develop, implement, and evaluate mission, goals, and strategy of the academic unit and Westminster College.
• Student learning - The dean provides leadership in curriculum development, educational innovation, assessment, and program changes.
• Communication - The dean communicates plans, decisions, and other academic unit news clearly and in a timely manner.
• Culture and climate - The dean plays an important role in promoting a respectful, collaborative, inclusive, and fair academic unit and campus culture.
• Advocacy - The dean represents the interests of the academic unit’s faculty and staff to college leadership, and provides recognition, encouragement, and support for the work faculty are doing.
• Professional development - The dean works with faculty and staff to identify professional development and capacity building needs and the resources necessary for continued professional growth.
• Management - The dean ensures that the core functions of the academic unit are performed efficiently and effectively.
• Personnel - The dean is involved in personnel matters including recruitment/hiring, retention or non-retention, promotion, and professional development.
• Advancement - The dean will partner with Institutional Advancement on academic unit or Westminster College-related fundraising projects.
• Student recruitment and retention - The deans are involved in aiding the admissions staff in undergraduate and/or graduate recruiting. They also partner with the director of student success and retention and the faculty in student retention initiatives.
• Assessment and accreditation - The dean provides oversight of the academic unit’s accreditations and manages activities such that academic-unit specific assessments and/or accreditations are obtained or maintained.
• Shared governance - The dean works collaboratively with the faculty chair to promote and uphold a strong system of shared governance.
• Local, state, and national advocacy - The dean represents the unit and communicates across the community, including with government entities, in ways that facilitate awareness and excitement about the School and advance its goals.

Qualifications:
Required Qualifications
The successful candidate for this position must possess:

• A terminal degree in one of the school’s disciplines.
• A strong record in higher education of teaching and scholarship and an achieved rank of associate or full professor.
• A minimum of five years of experience in an academic administrative leadership role that includes experience with all or most of the dean’s responsibilities, including personnel management, program development, managing budgets, diversity initiatives, enrollment management, and sustainability.
• Commitment to fostering a diverse educational environment and an ability to work with a diverse student and faculty population.

Desired Skills and Attributes
The successful candidate will possess at least some of the following experiences, skills, and attributes:

• Experience in academic administration specifically within one of the School of Arts and Science disciplines.
• A record of effective teaching and a commitment to innovative, research-based pedagogy.
• Evidence of competencies related to mediating and navigating organizational/higher education cultures.
• Excellent communication skills, including an ability to communicate in ways that inspire and facilitate awareness and excitement about arts and science programs.
• Demonstrated interest in interdisciplinary work and an ability to work collaboratively with colleagues in the school and across the campus community.
• Exceptional communication and problem-solving skills.
• Experience with strategic planning.
• Experience with fundraising and development or a skill set that lends itself to this work.

About the School of Arts and Sciences:
The School of Arts and Sciences is the largest of the schools at Westminster College and is primarily focused on undergraduate education. Arts and Sciences houses 23 undergraduate majors; a low residency, competency-based Master of Strategic Communications; and pre-professional designations including dentistry, law, and medicine.

The School is currently composed of 65 faculty members who carry a 24-credit hour annual workload (typically six courses). Arts and Sciences is largely responsible for administering the WCore—a liberal arts curriculum designed to be a flexible, individualized program that inspires students to explore engaging and unique courses.

The School has modern science facilities housed in the LEED Platinum-certified Meldrum Science Center—a four-story, 60,000-square-foot facility with 14 classrooms and research laboratories. The campus also features a new performing arts space with theatre, music, and dance performance venues, rehearsal studios, practice rooms, and gallery space.

Undergraduate students of the School of Arts and Sciences attest to the personalized attention they receive from the faculty outside the classroom. They relish the variety of programs offered, the numerous internships and research opportunities, and the sense of community within the school and college. Over 25 percent of the students in the school participate in research projects. For more information about the school click here.

About Westminster College:
Founded in 1875, Westminster College has a rich history rooted in liberal arts education. Over the last 30 years, it has added professional programs in business, nursing and health sciences, and education. The college has a strong academic reputation, deep community and alumni support, and a legacy of providing student-centered, liberal arts and professional education. It offers an intimate college experience to approximately 1,500 total undergraduate and graduate students.

The college promotes distinctive approaches to engaged learning through WCore and Honors, Westminster’s undergraduate liberal education programs. WCore gives students the opportunity to explore new subjects and ideas through unique courses and offers small-group settings that focus on synthesis, communication, and disciplinary research rather than simply memorizing facts.

Westminster College has received numerous accolades, including:

• Ranked in 2022 by the U.S. News and World Report as the “#18 Best Regional University” and the “#15 Best Undergraduate Teaching” institution
• Consistently recognized as a “Best College in the West” by the Princeton Review
• Recognized as a “Top Green College” by the Princeton Review in 2022
• Recognized as the #9 Best College for Veterans by the U.S. News and World Report in 2022
• Ranked above two-thirds of U.S. colleges in the Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education 2022 College Rankings list

Westminster’s beautiful campus is situated in a charming residential neighborhood of Salt Lake City called Sugar House--a 10-minute drive from downtown Salt Lake City.

The college is composed of the Honors College and four schools: the School of Arts and Sciences, Bill and Vieve Gore School of Business, School of Education, and School of Nursing and Health Sciences. The college employs approximately 112 full-time faculty, 160 part-time faculty, 190 full-time staff, and 75 part-time staff and provides exceptional education in 38 undergraduate majors, 31 minors, and 12 graduate degrees.

Roughly half of Westminster’s student body comes from outside of Utah and includes students from 42 countries. Approximately 19% of students identify as US students of color. Whether students live on or off campus, they have the opportunity to participate in more than 60 active clubs and organizations, informal gatherings at Shaw Student Center, and a variety of events sponsored by the Associated Students of Westminster (ASW). In addition, the college has fifteen total men's and women’s intercollegiate teams in NCAA Division II and a competitive intramurals program. Westminster proudly sent eight student and alumni Olympians to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. Westminster College athletes are high achievers both on and off the field: in 2022, the average student athlete’s GPA was 3.5.

Westminster is the only post-secondary institution in the state of Utah awarded grant funding by the US Department of Education to host the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program. McNair programs serve low-income and first-generation college students and/or students from groups underrepresented in graduate study. Since 2003, Westminster has served approximately 160 McNair students, some of whom were relocated to Salt Lake City as refugees from Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, and Bosnia. Sixteen McNair alums have earned a PhD, and 73 percent have either attained an advanced degree or remain in the graduate-study pipeline.

The Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU) accredits the college. Westminster also has specialized accreditation such as ACBSP, AAQEP, COA, CCNE, CEPH, and CACREP.

To Apply:
Westminster College, in consultation with Summit Search Solutions, Inc., will begin a confidential review of application materials immediately and continue until the position is filled; parties who apply by October 19, 2022 will be given first consideration. Applications should include a curriculum vitae and a letter of interest that addresses reasons for interest and experience related to the qualifications described above. All applications and nominations will be held in confidence. To apply online, go to: https://theapplicantmanager.com/jobs?pos=su320

For more information or to offer recommendations:
Andrea Martinez
Senior Consultant
Summit Search Solutions, Inc.
Direct: 919-357-8766
amartinez@summitsearchsolutions.com

Westminster College provides equal employment and advancement opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment, without regard to race, color, religion, age (40 and over), sex, pregnancy, gender, disability, national origin, ethnic background, citizenship, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.