Tacoma, WA - October 31, 2007
The search for a successor - Bill Frame leads search for new PLU dean
C.R. ROBERTS; The News Tribune
Published: October 29th, 2007 05:46 AM
Bill Frame, the interim dean of the School of Business at Pacific Lutheran University, served as the university’s vice president of finance and operations from 1993 to 1997. He was recently recruited from retirement by university president Loren Anderson, who asked that Frame serve as head of the Business School while leading a search for a permanent dean to replace Andy Turner, who left after short service to return to a position in the private sector.
Frame, 69, has worked in both worlds. He retired last year as president of Augsburg College in Minneapolis and previously worked as a banker and corporate executive and as a professor and college administrator.
With both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s from the University of Hawaii, Frame received his political science doctorate in 1969 from the University of Washington. He spoke with The News Tribune recently, less than a month after taking his current position. Much of the conversation focused on his philosophy of education, informed by such luminaries as Woody Hayes, former Ohio State football coach, and Philip Melanchthon, a contemporary of Martin Luther and one of the primary forces behind the Reformation. The matters reported here, however, primarily concern the search for a permanent dean.
What was it like coming back to Tacoma and PLU?
When I left in 1997, you didn’t want to walk around in the evening in Tacoma. I remember looking around and seeing an unrehabilitated city.
When Loren invited me to come back, we stayed at the Sheraton. Things have utterly transformed. It was just astounding.
How did the president invite you to return?
He said, ‘Well, we just lost our dean.’ I think (Andy Turner) was a good dean. I look back on his time with great regard. Loren said he wanted to find someone who could hold the fort for a year. I think we’ve had 10 deans in six years. The impact of that kind of change on the school – it hasn’t been good.
How goes the search?
It’s so very early. We’ve just got a posting out. We have 10 applications. I’m spending a portion of every day reaching out to friends and associates.
How are you approaching the process?
The first thing I did was say to the faculty that I’d like to learn from them what they dream of becoming. If I can understand, then I can help find a dean who can help accomplish that. Wouldn’t it be better to find a dean who will help us accomplish our vision?
The first month is finding out what faculty and staff feel is the thing that holds us together and distinguishes us.
And what do you believe that is?
It’s a deep commitment to learning.
How difficult is the search for a new dean going to be?
The fastest-growing field of study is business. People are flooding the market to enroll in undergraduate and graduate programs. The competition for faculty and leadership is immense. It’s going to take some real energy. But if we simply allow ourselves to be crowded into that commodity market, then we lose. And for us, it can’t be about money.
What we’re really doing is looking for a fit. We also have some people who are talking about retiring. There’s a shaping opportunity also. If we have (part) of the faculty who will be turning over, we can think about what can truly make us competitive. We’d like a dean who can see the opportunity, take hold of our vision.
It’s a complicated dimension, to find somebody who understands the global business world, the service economy, and who is capable of bringing that to bear.
Do you have a search committee?
We have four people, including myself, from inside the school, plus one from the university, and Andy Turner, who remains on the executive advisory board.
As you search, will there be any excluding factors?
Anyone with tremendous success but without a terminal degree – a CEO who retired at age 50, for example, but without a doctorate or a major law degree. Or someone with no research. We have got to sustain our cutting-edge wisdom in the faculty. (A terminal degree is the highest degree possible in a field of study.)
When do you expect to complete the search and announce a decision?
By mid-April we should be on the verge of a decision, after interviews in February and March.
Any advice for the new dean, or the school?
I think we need to get back in touch with Tacoma. We should have a lot more contact. I think we need to get more committed.
C.R. Roberts: 253-597-8535
c.r.roberts@thenewstribune.com
Bill Frame
Position: Interim dean, Pacific Lutheran University School of Business
Education and background: University of Hawaii; doctorate from UW; taught at Kenyon College; executive positions in banking and at Tonka Corp.; administrator at PLU; retired president of Augsburg College
His task: Select, recruit and hire a permanent dean
When he leaves his interim position: He will return with his wife to Minnesota.
Hobbies: Acoustic guitar, turn-of-the-century blues, rehabilitating an old wooden sailboat
Favorite blues artist: Mississippi John Hurt
Among many honors: Named Officer of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit, 2002
Doctoral dissertation: “Dialectical Historicism and the Terror in Chinese Communism”
1 komentārs:
lai piesakaas tie drosmiigie kas izlasiija no A-Z!!!
es nee, vismaz sovakar slinkums, labaak paviljaasos pa gultu :D
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