After more than a year and a half, the search for the new dean of the Miller College of Business has been narrowed down to three candidates.
The final applicants for the position - Dennis Bline, Robert Pitts and Rajib Sanyal - have held public forums the past week to present their job qualifications to faculty at the college.
Because of the long vacancy of the position, Ball State University Provost Terry King said the three candidates have been narrowed down from a "strong" group of more than 50 applicants.
King said the forums have been progressing the search process effectively.
"I think [the search] is going fine," King said. "They all look like they are good candidates. We'll have to see how it goes."
Lynne Richardson, former dean of the business college, left Ball State in May 2007 to become dean at the College of Business and Industry at Mississippi State University.
Since that time, Rod Davis, a professor in the Business Information Technology Department, has acted as interim dean of the college.
This fall's search is not the first time the college has held candidate forums. Last spring, the three candidates interviewed were turned down because they were not a proper fit with the university, King said.
Despite the lengthy search, King said Ball State is a good opportunity because of it's large endowment and rise in national recognition.
"We had a search last year, but we did not to accept any of those candidate because I felt they didn't have the right kind of mix of qualifications," King said. "It's been open for about a year and a half now. We'll have to see if this group has the right mix."
Robert Kvam, dean of the College of Fine Arts and chairman of the search committee, said the attendance of the forums has been dominated by faculty, but the student voice will be factored during later stages of the search process.
"There hasn't been hardly any student attendance at these forums," Kvam said. "But that's OK. This really isn't a student decision, but their input is always welcome."
Candidates
Dennis BlineCurrent position: Bryant University
Education: Bline has a Ph.D. in Accounting from the University of Arkansas, M.B.A in Accounting from the University of Arkansas and a B.S. in Business Administration from Indiana University Southeast.
Robert E. Pitts Current position: Professor of Marketing College of Charleston
Pitts holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration with dual concentrations in Marketing and Behavioral Management from the University of South Carolina and a Master of Business Information Systems from Georgia State University.
Rajib SanyalCurrent position: Dean of the College of Business at Northern Michigan University
Sanyal obtained his Ph.D. from Georgia State University and his master's from University of Wisconsin-Madison. His undergraduate degrees are from the University of Calcutta and University of Delhi.
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