Dean candidate visits campus

By Alisha Brown
Staff Reporter

Bridging the departments within the College of Communication would be the primary goal of Dan O’Hair, a professor of speech communication from the University of Oklahoma who is on campus this week interviewing for the position of dean of the college.

But O’Hair said allocating available resources within the college might come down to which department could argue the best case and demonstrate the most need for resources, which could divide the departments.

“I feel that all three disciplines are not so different — they are all focused on messages and meaning and understanding, and I think that it’s the dean’s job to communicate that as common ground,” he said.

O’Hair’s two-day interview process with students, faculty, alumni and administrators Wednesday and today will help determine if he is the right candidate for the position, search committee chairman Bill Ryan said.

“We’re out to see if his character will mesh well with TCU and if TCU’s character will mesh well with him,” Ryan said.

“These two days will serve as a sort of litmus test.”

O’Hair may face challenges coming into the process of acquiring the job of dean for a new college.

The college of Fine Arts and Communication split in fall 1999. Scott Sullivan was hired as dean of the College of Fine Arts on Feb. 10, 2000, and the search for the communication dean has continued since December.

“What any candidate must realize is the weight of their job,” Interim Dean David Whillock said. “Their philosophy and character can direct the future and success of this school.”

One of the primary challenges a candidate will face is working with the differing disciplines within the college — speech communication, radio-TV-film and journalism, Whillock said.

“Speech communication is geared more toward the academia whereas radio-TV-film is more profession-oriented than classroom-oriented,” he said.

O’Hair’s educational background is in speech communication. Professionally, he has served as a professor and chairman of communications at OU, Texas Tech University and New Mexico State University.

Whillock said that as dean of the college, O’Hair would be responsible for managing scarce resources — human and monetary — within the departments as well as raising funds to accommodate needs.

O’Hair said he would be an advocate for available funds within the university and take on the initiative to acquire outside funds.

In this area, O’Hair has experience writing federal and private grants for institutions from the Department of Defense to TCU, where he was an assistant professor from 1982 to 1985.

Alisha Brown
a.k.brown2@student.tcu.edu