University hits pause on SHAS dean search
By Mia Timlin
On March 3, 2025, a student-wide email was sent out from President Marcheta Evans and Interim Provost Denise Baird. The email was a notification that the search for a new dean of the School of Humanities, Arts and Sciences, which had been active since early Fall of this year, would be paused.
The email attributed this pause to the possibility of upcoming structural changes stating that “at this time, and with students and their success as our top consideration, the university leadership team is carefully examining a range of options to ensure St. Catherine University’s long-term sustainability and continued excellence. These options include institutional partnerships, new revenue streams, and organizational restructuring, including within academic affairs. As part of this work, we are assessing how our three-college, four-school structure best supports the university’s mission, including our steadfast commitment to the liberal arts.”
The email also announced the continued leadership of Dr. Marc Manganaro, who has been serving as interim dean since August of 2024.
A statement from Interim Provost Baird for the Wheel offers more insight into the decision to pause the search, saying that “the search for our next SHAS dean was paused as it became clear that, with the strategic priorities set by University leadership, we had more work to do within our academic affairs division that could change the position description for the next SHAS dean. It wouldn’t be fair to the dean, the School, or the students to hire for one role while considering changes to that same role.We plan to revisit the position description and what a search might look like as part of our current examination of our organizational structures and processes.”
The student representative for the dean search, Olivia Lien ‘26 (English and History, Linguistics minor) offered some details of the search itself, saying that she was a part of creating a rubric of qualities the search committee was looking for in a candidate.
Lien says that the rubric consisted of eight major categories: Education background and research and scholarly contributions, mission alignment with the university, leadership experience in academic programs, vision for the humanities, strategic budgeting experience, commitment to diversity and inclusion and evidence of communication and collaboration skills.
Each of these qualities had a ranking system of one through three, with higher point totals indicating a stronger candidate for the position.
Lien says that she learned a lot from the time she put in on this search committee, and doesn’t regret it, even if it didn’t ultimately end with finding a dean.
“It helped me to realize how interconnected everything is,” Lien says. “And obviously at St. Kate’s we’re much smaller than many other universities, but I really do think it helped me realize how connected all the faculty members are. Not all faculty of course— I think your own school, you’re more likely to be closer to that school, but it was interesting to see some of those relationships, and I think that we should be more interdisciplinary.”
Lien attributes this need for more campus crossover, especially when it comes to advocating for the Humanities, to part of why she thinks the dean search was put on pause.
“I think even though SHAS is seemingly big, I think a lot of faculty want more administrative support,” says Lien. “Because at many other universities, especially right now, the liberal arts is one of the first things to get cut when there isn’t funding. I think when you’re always on the defensive, or always worried about losing funding, losing support or having to get rid of some classes, or not having enough students signed up. It can feel a little worrisome if you don’t have someone in a position fighting for you. You don’t have someone talking to other deans, and representing your school and your little tiny department when communicating on an administrative level. I think that’s where some of the concerns come from. Like, yes we have a Dean of SHAS, but they’re an interim. The thing about being an interim dean, is that it’s a little bit like being adjunct faculty in that—yes, you’re qualified, yes you are in that position, but a lack of permanency when you have faculty members that are already a little on edge about the permanency of their department, there could be a fear that not having the permanency of a dean could be another continuation of that.”
While Lien acknowledges the uncertainty that comes with the decision to pause the search, she also says that she sees why it had to happen.
“It was a very intentional decision,” Lien says. “It wasn’t rash, it wasn’t made in the heat of the moment. It was very clearly thought through and I appreciated that they had communicated that with us. I gained a lot of respect for how deliberate and intentional St. Kate’s is when we bring people into our community. It’s very much done with love and done intentionally. That was nice, to actually experience that.”
