By MEGGIE I. FOSTER
Assistant Editor

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — In an effort to name the next dean of the Purdue University College of Agriculture, the school’s 18-person nominating committee recently selected the top three qualified finalists.

From a large pool of candidates: Jay Akridge, of Purdue; John Floros, of Penn State University; and Ramesh Kanwar, of Iowa State University, have been invited to participate in the next round of formal interviews to be held in December. In addition, each candidate will be given the opportunity to present a public seminar on the Purdue campus in December.

“We have selected three very outstanding candidates,” said Willie Reed, dean of the school of veterinary medicine and spokesperson for the nominating committee. “We are very pleased with these three fine finalists, all very accomplished leaders in their respective areas.”

According to Reed, each candidate vying for the role of dean, will present a one-hour long seminar in the Pfendler Hall Deans Auditorium on the Purdue campus in West Lafayette.

In addition to the public sessions, Hoosiers and Purdue alumni from across the country can view the candidates’ seminars online via Internet streaming.

More details about the three finalists and streaming links is available at www. agriculture.purdue.edu/dean_search

The top three

Jay Akridge is currently serving as the interim dean of agriculture at Purdue and the James and Lois Ackerman Professor of Agricultural Economics. He is also director of the Purdue-Kelley masters in business administration program in food and agricultural business.
Akridge’s seminar will be Dec. 9 at 9 a.m.

“My faculty appointment has definitely given me experience in all mission areas of the College of Agriculture at Purdue through extensive international experience, the chance to be involved in administrative roles such as my leadership role in the Center for Agribusiness, interim dean and interim provost,” said Akridge.
If named dean, Akridge said the first thing he would do in office is finish the college’s strategic plan due in the spring.

“Clearly, the strategic plan will set the direction of the college and the university and it’s critical to be at the forefront of that development,” he added. “Also, I would reach out to our stakeholders, department faculty and staff to identify the opportunities and challenges within the college and make it my goal to find the solutions as dean.”

John Floros serves as professor and head of the department of food science at Penn State. His seminar will be Dec. 11 at 9 a.m. Floros named four major factors that lend to his experience as the potential new dean nominee.

“One, I served on the faculty at Purdue nine years ago, so I know the College of Agriculture at Purdue very well. Secondly, my experience as department head for the past nine years has been tremendous, where we’ve built fundraising efforts to build a new building, improved programs, hired a lot of new faculty, and moved the department in a new, brighter direction.”

Floros said the first item of business he would focus on if named dean would be to meet with the faculty, staff and stakeholders of Purdue to “get a clear picture of where we are and where we want to go.

For me, it’s critically important to understand the people within the college, where their goals lie, and then meet with the stakeholders outside of the university to see where they want the university to be in the future.”

Ramesh Kanwar is currently professor and chair of the department of agricultural and bio-systems engineering at Iowa State. Kanwar’s seminar will be Dec. 15 at 9 a.m.

“As department chair at Iowa State, shaping and understanding our department’s mission, our university’s mission, I believe will serve very beneficial in the role of dean,” said Kanwar. “I’ve been blessed to hire the best and brightest at ISU, which is part of the mission of a good dean. And, global connectivity is also a very important part of a dean’s mission in order to take the college to the next level.”

If selected as dean, Kanwar said he would “identify the stakeholders, meet with the school’s faculty, staff, president and provost and find out what they’re expecting. Above all, I would envision listening to the extended stakeholders within the first six months of my administration in all 92 counties of the state and find out what the college can do for them.”

The final selection

Reed said the next steps for the selection process, following the formal interviews and public seminars in December, will be for the committee to meet within 48 hours following the final interview to discuss and gather information to present to the University’s Provost Randy Woodson, who previously served as dean of agriculture.

Ultimately, Reed said Woodson will review all information presented and gathered through interviews and feedback from stakeholders to make the final selection of the new dean. Reed anticipates Woodson will select and name the new dean ideally before the end of the year.

“We hope to have this process completed by the end of December. In a way, we are anxious to fill this position, but we want the right candidate, so if Randy believes we don’t have the right person, the selection process will begin again,” said Reed.

The dean of agriculture oversees 13 academic and administrative departments with a student enrollment of more than 2,500 students.

In addition, Purdue Agriculture is home to Purdue Extension with offices in all 92 Indiana counties, International Programs in Agriculture and state services such as the Office of Indiana State Chemist and Indiana Animal Disease and Diagnostic Laboratory.