The UNM Division of Continuing Education, home to almost 40,000 non-degree seeking students, will have a new dean, chosen from a list of three finalists, sometime in the next two months.
Associate Provost David Stewart, who is also chairman of the search committee, said there were 90 inquiries about the position and 74 complete applications. The search committee, he added, began reducing the candidate pool after getting its charge on Feb. 27.
"We have a group of top-flight candidates here, one of whom will fill a very important role in the community," Stuart said. "These people are all well-known and respected in the field and have run complicated university systems before. There'll be no on-the-job training here."
The job description includes substantial prior experience, hands-on money management skills, and work-force training, he said.
One of the candidates, Rita Martinez-Purson, visited UNM on May 5. Martinez-Purson is the former interim president and recent past dean of Continuing Education and workforce development at Santa Fe Community College, Santa Fe.
The other candidates are:
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Donald Swoboda, former dean of Division of Continuing Studies and professor in the Teaching College at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Swoboda will visit campus today.
Patricia Book, current associate vice president for outreach and executive director of the Division of Continuing Education, Outreach and Cooperative Extension at Penn State University. Book will visit campus May 12.
Each candidate will have an interview with UNM Provost Brian Foster - who will later hire the new dean - an interview with the search committee and a chance to meet faculty, staff and community members in public forums.
"We tried to schedule these visits as close together as possible so everyone still has a fresh image of all the candidates in their mind," Stuart said.
In 1999, UNM formed the Extended University, which shared organizational and management structures with Continuing Education, according to the UNM Web site. Jeronimo Dom°nguez served as both vice provost for the Extended University and dean of Continuing Education.
Dom°nguez said that since the two programs serve different markets and have separate missions, a need for different management developed.
Continuing Education, he said, provides professional development such as paralegal and real estate licensure and personal enrichment courses. All programs in the division are non-degree.
Extended University offers degree programs such as business, to students who cannot necessarily attend classes on campus, through Internet and television classes, Dom°nguez said.
After almost a year of negotiations with Foster, Dom°nguez said, "it became clear that a separation was needed because both enterprises were growing so rapidly. It became difficult for me to maintain both."
Stuart said that, given the size and scope of both programs, "that role was too big for any human being to fill."
The new Continuing Education dean should take office, he said, as soon as two weeks after the last candidate's visit to campus, or as late as July 1. Dom°nguez will remain as vice provost for Extended University.
"I'm really excited about the candidates and I am confident that I will fulfill the role of vice provost," Dom°nguez said. "I think it's a win-win."
