School of arts and sciences dean candidates visit Bona's

Amy L. Sayward B.A.: History, St. Bonaventure University, '91 M.A.: History,The Ohio State University, '93 Ph. D.: U.S. Diplomatic History, The Ohio State University, '98 Current Position: Chair and Professor for the Department of History at Middle Tennessee State University What attracted Sayward to Bonaventure: "My time at Bonaventure ... helped me develop my roots and my wings."

Anne F. Herzog B.A.: Psychology, College of the Holy Cross, '81 M.A.: English, Georgetown University, '85 Ph. D.: English, Rutgers University, '93 Current Position: Chair of English Department at West Chester University What attracted Herzog to Bonaventure: "One of the things I really like about a place like this, it has a value system."

Two of the four candidates for the dean of the school of arts and sciences position visited with St. Bonaventure University faculty and students this week to discuss many aspects of higher education, including dynamics of liberal arts universities like St. Bonaventure.

Eleanor Green, interim dean of the school of arts and sciences, joined St. Bonaventure at the beginning of the 2009-10 school year after former dean Stephen Stahl left, according to a Sept. 4, 2009, Bona Venture article.

Originally, 46 candidates applied for the dean position, Green wrote in an e-mail. The search committee whittled that number down to 16, and eventually to four: Amy L. Sayward, Anne F. Herzog, Richard A. Sax and Wolfgang Natter. Sayward and Herzog visited Monday and Wednesday, respectively.

The university held student forums to allow students to participate in the selection process, according to Mike Kaplan, sophomore Student Government Association (SGA) senator and a member of the search committee to find a dean for the school of arts and sciences.

Sayward graduated from St. Bonaventure University in 1991 with a B.A. in history before obtaining her Ph.D. in U.S. Diplomatic History from The Ohio State University in 1998, according to a letter she submitted to the university search committee in December. She secured a tenure-track position at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) in 1998 and has been there since.

She currently chairs the Department of History at MTSU, and her duties include overseeing a full-time staff, handling a $3.3 million budget, managing three degree programs and scheduling classes for 3,000 to 4,000 students of all levels each semester, according to the letter.

"As chair, I have not yet had a boring day, and I work hard to balance the need to focus on long-term, strategic projects with the urgent issues that come through the door each day," she wrote.

She wrote her time at Bonaventure makes her qualified for the role of dean of the school of arts and sciences.

"I believe that my work since leaving St. Bonaventure has prepared me to return and to serve the university community there that I love," she wrote.

Although not an alumna, Herzog said she believes she also has what it takes to serve St. Bonaventure. She wrote in her cover letter that she relates to St. Bonaventure because she also graduated from a private liberal arts college with a Catholic heritage - the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass.

"I regularly look back on the richness of my own liberal arts education as the primary influence on the person I am today," she wrote. "St. Bonaventure's Franciscan values that insist on an essential connection between a student's intellectual development and larger spiritual beliefs and service commitments are values I share."

Herzog currently serves as chairperson of West Chester University English Department, which she has been a member of since 1993, according to her letter. She earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in English at Georgetown University and Rutgers University, respectively, while teaching at both.

Herzog said she thinks about higher education as a business and more.

"We have to be looking ahead and looking around at developments in the larger culture because students will go to one school and not another based on what they know is being offered," she said.

However, she said she thinks a liberal arts school's curriculum shouldn't be completely market driven.

"I really do endorse the whole notion that we educate students to be flexible thinkers, people who can make adjustments in their career direction (and) respond well to changes that they may not have anticipated."

Next week, Sax is scheduled to visit Tuesday and Natter Thursday. Student forums will be held for both from 4:15 to 5 p.m. in Reilly Center Room 219. Faculty sessions for Sax are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday at 10 a.m. and for Natter Thursday at 2 p.m. and Friday at 10 a.m. both in the University Club, according to Monday's Notice Board.

Green wrote the committee should finish interviews by March 19 and hopes to make a decision that afternoon.

The Bona Venture will profile Richard A. Sax and Wolfgang Natter next week.

Michael Vitron, news editor, contributed reporting to this story.

e-mail: harperra@sbu.edu