Story by Teddy Martin, Contributing writer

The College of Humanities and Fine Arts is beginning a national search for a new dean.

With several separate categories to watch over, there needs to be someone who can help keep the process of aiding students and functioning as a department going.

Staci Stone, assistant dean to the English and Philosophy Department, said there is a chair of each department in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts. 

“I was chair of the English and Philosophy Department for a little over seven years before being appointed assistant dean of the college in October 2014,” she said.

She is currently interim dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, and her term ends June 30, 2016. 

“The College of Humanities and Fine Arts will be conducting a search for a permanent dean,” she said. “I am chairing that search committee, and the committee will likely be announced later this week.”

The search firm conducting the provost’s search will also conduct the dean’s search.

The English and Philosophy Department is a source of many different facilities. The English as a Second Language Program is there as well as other language programs. They offer help in creative writing, technical writing, business, publishing, teaching, law and journalism degrees.

In addition to this, they offer degree programs to educate students in literary and philosophical knowledge, critical thinking, and communication skills, thereby preparing them to become teachers, writers and other professionals and to pursue further academic studies, according to their mission statement.

Kyle Schenck, junior from Boston, Kentucky, said a dean of the English and Philosophy Department needed to talk to students on a friendly level, while at the same time maintaining an air of authority in the college’s multiple facets. He said through this, students can respect the office while still being able to approach them, should they need help. Schenck also said student-faculty interactions are crucial to the university as a whole, and should be one of the top priorities.

“If they need a new one, then they need a new one,”  he said. “That’s how that goes. Businesses need to replace and supplement officials or fill new positions altogether.”

Schenck said the dean will need to be experienced in the department.

“If not, then there’s going to be a lot more problems than not having a dean,” Schenck said. “They need to know how to teach what they know.”

Victoria Hosman, sophomore from Grand Rivers, Kentucky, said she has been very pleased with the professors of the English and Philosophy Department. Most of her professors, she said, were approachable and wanted to interact with students.

“My interactions with the department are kind of limited,” she said, “I never had a whole lot of interaction with the dean, so I’m not sure.”