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New
dean prepared to begin work William Slater said he is counting the days until he becomes the new dean of the College of Communications. “We
reached an agreement for me becoming dean in October, so I have
been waiting quite a while,” Slater said. “I am ready
to get started.”
William Koehler, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, said Slater was hired for the position for several reasons. “His experience plays a major role simply because he has been a dean before at other colleges,” Koehler said. “He is very knowledgeable, has a wonderful spirit and is an enjoyable person to be with socially and at work.” Koehler said there will be expectations when Slater comes to TCU. “Of course there is the fundraising expectation and Slater is well known for doing a great job on that,” he said. “I also expect his role to be more on the side of a managerial and leadership position where he will help faculty and staff envision future goals.” Slater, the first black dean at TCU, said he does not have any goals coming to TCU because he wants to first discuss any problems with faculty and staff before he makes any changes. “I do plan to have a faculty retreat in order to discuss the status of the college in order to come up with some goals to move forward,” Slater said. “With whatever goals we will eventually have, they will require fund raising and I find that extremely important. Tommy Thomason, chairman of the journalism department, said he is confident Slater will take the college to the next level. “He is an incredible leader especially in the area of journalism and he adds instant credibility to the journalism department,” Thomason said. “He has a record of progress with all the schools he has worked with and I am confident he will take this college to the next level.” William Powers, chairman of the speech communication department, said he knew Slater was going to do great things for the school after he met Slater. “I was able to get to know him for what turned out to be an extended time in September,” Powers said. “Dean Slater is a very good man and has a lot of academic experience.” The College of Communication, which includes the departments of journalism, radio-TV-film and speech communication, has been with interim dean, David Whillock, since 1999. Whillock said he is uncertain what he will do for the future. “I will be teaching in May and I could possibly teach next spring with (the radio-TV-film department),” he said. Slater earned his undergraduate degree at Tufts University and received his master’s and doctorate at Stanford University. Slater worked as a newspaper and broadcast journalist from 1959 to 1977 before entering the higher education field. Most recently he was the dean at the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada-Reno. Raul
Martinez IV |
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TCU Daily Skiff © 2002 |
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