EHS dean candidate Henry Clark touts transparency, compliments CMU investment in international programs
Henry Clark said if you ask any of his faculty, they will tell you the door to his office is open anytime he is there.
Clark, senior associate dean for academic affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University, responded to questions from faculty and members of the community Monday as part of an open forum. Clark is one of three candidates running for dean of the College of Education and Human Services.
Clark said his relationship with faculty is transparent.
“Transparency, I think, is one of the critical parts of the relationship between dean and faculty,” he said. “You don’t have to always agree, but the process has to be transparent.”
Clark spoke of comparisons between VCU and Central Michigan University, while also noting differences between the two universities.
Clark brought up a conversation he had with Provost Gary Shapiro, where Shapiro informed him he wanted the new dean to increase the research profile from the college. As a dean, he said he would advocate and push faculty to do this.
“Part of the reason I brought that up was because I don’t think changing the expectation is realistic in the absence of changing modes, and I don’t think changing modes is realistic is the absence of the resources to make that happen,” Clark said.
During the hour-long open forum, Clark used personal examples from his past and explained how he would handle funding issues, faculty positions, diversity and international programs, although admitting a lack of expertise in the latter.
“I work with faculty in a lot of cultural backgrounds,” he said. “But VCU doesn’t have a lot of investment in international programs. We are just getting into that venture.”
He said he is familiar with CMU's international programs within EHS and said they are all wonderful opportunities, to the point he has encouraged his own faculty at VCU to follow suit.
The final EHS dean candidate will be evaluated on Tuesday. Dale-Elizabeth Pehrsson, associate dean of the College of Education at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, will hold a forum from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. in EHS 315.
All candidate forums are open to the public.
