The Dedman College dean search committee has completed its work and has presented its findings to SMU Provost Robert Blocker. The three candidates are Roger Benjamin, Jim Lindsay and Jim Quick.
Benjamin is the president of the Council for Aid to Education, a nonprofit group that encourages corporate support of education and conducts policy research on higher education.
From 1966 to 1983, Benjamin served University of Minnesota as a political science professor, dean, vice president for academic affairs and provost. He then was senior vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost at the University of Pittsburgh from 1983 to 1986.
Lindsay is vice president, director of studies and Maurice R. Greenberg chair at the Council of Foreign Relations. The CFR is an independent, non-partisan organization that conducts research and publishes its findings on the foreign policy choices that face the United States and other governments.
He too was a political science professor from 1987 to1999 at the University of Iowa. He later went on to serve the National Security Council as director for global issues and multilateral affairs. He has also served as a consultant to the United States’ Commission on National Security/21st Century and as a staff expert for the United States Institute of Peace’s congressionally mandated task force on the United Nations.
Quick has worked for the United States Geological Survey since 1981 and is now a chief scientist with the Eastern Region Earth Surface Processes Team. His research has involved magmatic processes in the earth’s deep crust and mantle.
School of Engineering Dean Geoffrey Orsak headed the search committee and said the search went extraordinarily well and the applicant pool of 150 was strong.
None of the three candidates currently holds a job in academia. Orsak said this was a strength in the search.
“Two of the three [Benjamin and Lindsay] had been in academia-What they offered was that academic background together with the special sauce of having been outside in the political arena or the public policy arena,” Orsak said. “They brought a very comprehensive total package.”
Orsak said Quick has great leadership and management skills and is a stunning candidate.
He added that the remaining candidates currently work in New York City and Washington D.C., and it is a testament to the reputation of the Dedman College that these candidates are considering the job.
“You can get a person out of Iowa, but try to get someone out of Manhattan — it’s like getting your shoe horn out,” Orsak said. “We can go after the best of the best.”
Now that the committee has presented its findings to Blocker, he will work with SMU President R. Gerald Turner to decide whom to offer the job.
Orsak said no matter who accepts the position, SMU will be getting an exceptional dean.
“We were able to bring three really interesting, highly qualified candidates to campus that all would make outstanding deans of Dedman College.”
