While replacing the dean of a college is a major undertaking, the task for Penn State is five times as hard this time.

Five vacancies will have to be filled in the coming months to replace deans who have or will resign from the School of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), the Smeal College of Business, the College of Health and Human Development, the Schreyer Honors College and the College of Medicine.

To advertise the vacancies, solicit applications and interview candidates, Vice President and Provost Rodney Erickson forms a committee comprising about a dozen members, including faculty, staff and students, said Blannie Bowen, vice provost for academic affairs. A dean from another college heads each committee, he added.

"You want someone who's familiar with what a dean does," he said.

Bowen said the committee usually relies on ads placed in the Chronicle of Higher Education and other education-related publications, in addition to word-of-mouth messages within specific fields.

From the available applicants, the committee then selects six to eight and further narrows the list to three to four potential candidates after the interview process.

These final candidates meet with Erickson, other deans, students, administrators and faculty, Bowen said.

He said the provost receives some feedback and then meets with Penn State President Graham Spanier to make the final decision.

Bowen said the salary for a position is negotiated with Erickson after a selection is made. He said the salaries are not public, and they vary from college to college.

"The dean of the [medical] school and business generally are very expensive," he said.

Eric Barron, dean of the Earth and Mineral Sciences College, chaired the search committee for a new dean of the Schreyer Honors College. He said the committee began to screen a wide pool of applicants in late September.

The committee selected three final candidates: Robert Crane, associate dean of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences; Tanya Furman, associate professor in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences; and Lynne Goodstein, associate vice provost and director of the honors program at the University of Connecticut.

Student committee member Fujun Wu (senior-computer science) said Barron did not try to promote candidates from within his college.

"Eric actually got very sensitive about it ... the whole process is definitely fair," she said.

Bowen said final interviews for the honors college dean have been completed, and the president and provost will make a decision in the near future.

Susan Welch, dean of the College of the Liberal Arts and chair of the IST dean search committee, said the committee had just started a few weeks ago.

She said the committee was looking for someone to build on the work former Dean Jim Thomas had started.

Welch said the committee hoped to recommend a short list of candidates to the provost by the end of the semester.

David Wormley, dean of the College of Engineering and chair of the Smeal Business College dean search committee, said the committee began meeting in December and plans to hold public interviews in February or March, so a new dean can be installed by summer.

Wormley said the committee was soliciting applications from both inside and outside the college and even outside the country.

"Business is a very broad area," he said.

He said the committee might consider applicants from outside academia, such as CEOs and business leaders.

Becky Young, staff assistant for the dean searches, said the search for a new dean of the College of Health and Human Development was just beginning.

"The committee has met only once to begin looking at candidates," said Young, adding that Robert Steele, dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences, will chair the committee.

The administration must still find a candidate for vice provost of international programs, one of the two new positions created after the death of Jan Jacobs last fall. Robert Pangborn, professor of engineering mechanics, filled the other position as vice president and dean for undergraduate education.

Bowen said an internal search was done for the vice president for undergraduate education because of the complex nature of the job.

"We didn't want someone to have to come in and have to spend at least a year trying to understand Penn State," he said.