OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. during the Board of Regents meeting on March 12.
This story is part of OU Daily’s summer magazine. This publication will be available in mid-April on racks around campus and online at oudaily.com.
In the 45 years he’s been in Norman, Paul Bell has watched OU transition through six permanent presidents and four interim ones.
Over the years, he’s seen OU’s administration weather various controversies: Richard L. Van Horn’s tenure that was marked by audits and poorly handled investigations; David L. Boren’s administration that transformed the university’s ambitions before being marred by sexual misconduct allegations and financial mismanagement; and former President James Gallogly’s budget-focused tenure, which ended after just over 10 months.
Now Bell, dean emeritus of the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences, is observing the university undergo another significant transition as current President Joseph Harroz Jr. leads OU through a historic move to the Southeastern Conference, pursuit of membership in one of academia’s elite echelons and an attempt to build its status as a premier research institution. All that coincides with OU entering the second half of a $2 billion fundraising campaign as the United States reaches an inflection point about the value of higher education.
This is a season of change on campus, with numerous administrative leadership transitions, leaving OU with more open academic dean positions than its collegiate peers. As this semester winds down, OU is poised to have six of its 16 Norman deans be interim or acting leaders of their colleges — a problem Bell says inhibits the broader progress of the institution beyond Evans Hall.
The university has three ongoing dean searches: Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication, College of Law and Honors College, the latter of which has been without a dean for nearly seven years. OU is restructuring and renaming its University College, which hasn’t had a permanent dean since August 2022.
“The fact that there's so many, that's a bit of a shock,” Bell said about the open dean positions.
When Bell became dean in 1997, there were roughly 11 dean positions on OU’s Norman campus, with Honors College forming that same year. Over his 16 years as dean, Bell saw the formation or renaming of Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy, David L. Boren College of International Studies, Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication, and the College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences.
Bell said new leadership can drive change and innovation, but this many open positions could also mean potential trouble for OU’s administration among the rank and file of the university.
“It could mean there’s a general lack of confidence in what's going on at the university and people are abandoning the ship,” Bell said. “I just retired after 44 years at OU. I know of other people who are retiring, who probably could stay on longer. I know a lot of people who are leaving and finding other jobs because, for one reason or another, they're not happy being at OU right now.
“That much turnover, just objectively, that much turnover is usually not a good sign.”
Gaylord Hall Dean's Suite on Feb. 3.
‘Red tape’
OU’s six open dean positions are the most among its current Big 12 Conference and future SEC peers.
As of March, University of Cincinnati had the second most open dean positions in the Big 12 with four, the median number of open dean positions being one.
For the SEC, the median was 1.5 open dean positions, with Texas A&M University having five open positions.
Of SEC presidents with fewer than five years in the job, Harroz, who was named interim president in 2019 and permanent president in 2020, has more dean openings than his peers, with Texas A&M University, whose president was inaugurated in 2023, having one less than OU.
University of Florida also inaugurated a new president in 2023, and seven other SEC schools have had new presidents or chancellors since 2019.
College of Law Dean Katheleen Guzman announced in October her intent to step down at the end of the academic year. The OU Board of Regents approved a search committee to find her successor in November.
Former Gaylord Dean Ed Kelley retired at the end of June, citing a need for younger leadership to oversee Generation Z students. Five candidates visited campus in March, and three finalists have been sent to Harroz in recent days, an anonymous source told OU Daily.
Scott Fritzen, former dean of the College of International Studies stepped down in June to take a job as president of Fulbright University Vietnam. His duties were split between Jonathan Stalling, who serves as the college’s interim dean, and Rebecca Cruise, who serves as interim associate provost for global engagement.
Mike Stice stepped down as dean of the College of Earth and Energy in November 2022, according to OU Board of Regents meeting minutes. John Antonio serves as interim dean of the college.
Nicole Campbell stepped down as dean of University College in August 2022 to focus on teaching and scholarship. Ken Petersen has been overseeing the college, which OU announced in February would be reorganized under the provost’s office and no longer be a standing college.
University College was one of the first in the nation to specifically cater to first-year students. In its current form, the college includes academic advising, the assessment center, first-year learning and engagement programs, first-year foundations courses, University College seminars and the Student Learning Center. With this change, first-year students will now be enrolled directly into their college of choice.
OU’s Honors College has had three interim deans since its former Dean David Ray left the university in 2017: Doug Gaffin, who served from 2017 to 2020, Rich Hamerla, who served from 2020 to 2023, and Kelvin White, who replaced Hamerla in October.
Regents approved a new search committee for the Honors College dean in January. The university previously conducted a search and interviewed candidates during the COVID-19 pandemic, though no hires were made.
Martha Banz stepped down as dean of the College of Professional and Continuing Studies in December 2022. Gregg Garn now serves as interim dean and vice president of online learning at OU.
There have been no updates on potential search committees for the Professional and Continuing Studies, Earth and Energy or International Studies dean positions.
“Generally, when you have that many deans leaving all at once, it usually is a sign that there may be issues involving somebody or some situation,” Bell said. “What people tell me over and over and over again is that it’s becoming increasingly difficult at OU to get anything done because the red tape is getting thicker and thicker and thicker.”
Since the pandemic, changes have roiled offices like Marketing and Communications, Student Affairs and Native American Studies, to name a few. The university has conducted campus climate surveys amid escalating employee insurance rates, shifting payroll cycles and imposing curved caps on review processes, making it harder and less likely for employees to earn raises. All while the trash is taken out less frequently across campus and various landscaping and construction jobs on campus are slowed.
Such red tape, Bell said, takes away from deans and faculty’s other jobs, such as scholarship, research and teaching. Bell said just moving a staff member from one office to another within a department now requires committees, oversight from the OU Board of Regents and can take up significant time and resources.
The Honors College and Gaylord College search committees are each headed by a dean — Graduate College Dean Randall Hewes and Price College of Business Dean Corey Phelps, respectively — and the College of Law search committee is co-chaired by OU Vice President and General Counsel Armand Paliotta and College of Arts and Sciences Dean David Wrobel. The Honors College committee has seven members, the Gaylord College committee has 14 and the College of Law search committee has 13.
“That's crazy,” Bell said of such bureaucracy in general. “That's the kind of red tape that just makes people tired. People don't take faculty jobs at universities to do red tape. They take faculty jobs to teach and do research. Anything that gets in the way of teaching and research is a burden on what people are really there for, which is to spend time with their students, teach classes and do their scholarship.”
OU professor and former dean of the College of International Studies Suzette Grillot speaks at the Rally to Stop Racism on Jan. 22, 2019.
Executive searches
Ray M. Bowen, former Texas A&M University president and former Oklahoma State University interim president, led his university in joining the Association of American Universities, a prestigious group of research institutions in the U.S. that Harroz and some of his predecessors have aspired for OU to join.
Bowen told OU Daily he never saw more than five dean positions open at once when he was president, but he said it can happen due to several reasons, from administrative turmoil to the closing or reorganizing of specific programs.
“Sometimes it's age,” Bowen said. “Sometimes it's a new president or a new provost who want his or her own people. It’s a multidimensional issue.”
Bowen said new university presidents and provosts can look to make changes in administrative personnel, just like a state governor or U.S. president would. Different presidents have different ideals for their leadership, and many times it can lead to dean turnover.
Since taking office in 2019, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt has shifted the makeup of the OU Board of Regents, the university’s governing body and Harroz’s bosses. All but one member of the board was appointed by Stitt, the exception being former chair Natalie Shirley who was appointed by former Gov. Mary Fallin in 2018. Stitt’s most recent appointment was Kenneth S. Waits, who still needs Senate approval before his term begins.
Harroz, who previously served as law dean, turned to a new face to lead the hiring of academic deans, André-Denis Wright. Wright joined the university in 2021 as senior vice president and provost of the Norman campus, succeeding Kyle Harper, who vacated the role in June 2020 after facing backlash following a sit-in organized by the Black Emergency Response Team that called for his resignation.
Since Wright took the role, six deans — Guzman, Kelley, Fritzen, Stice, Banz and Campbell — have stepped down.
Each administration runs searches differently, however, the national standard has switched to emphasize hiring search firms and creating search committees.
Executive search firms, however, cost thousands of dollars and take time, sometimes running as low as $25,000 and as high as over $160,000, according to Inside Higher Ed. On top of professional or base fees, universities pay indirect, client, candidate and additional consultant expenses that increase the price.
OU hired Greenwood Asher & Associates to conduct the search for Gaylord College’s next dean. OU previously hired the firm for its senior vice president and provost, faculty director of gateway programs, law dean and OU Health Sciences Center’s senior vice president and provost searches.
The firm advertises its services having led to the appointments of presidents at Auburn University, University of Arizona, University of Florida, University of Kentucky and West Virginia University, among others. The firm also helped appoint journalism or mass communication deans at Louisiana State University and at Florida A&M University.
The agreement between OU and Greenwood Asher & Associates, obtained by OU Daily through a public records request, states that professional fees for the search includes one third of the hire’s first year estimated cash compensation or a minimum of $60,000, whichever is higher. If a candidate outside of Greenwood Asher & Associates’ recommendations is hired, the firm charges a fee of 25% of the hire’s first year compensation.
The firm also invoices other expenses such as indirect, consultant and client expenses to cover extra costs of the search. The contract read that the firm will assist in a second search if the candidate chosen from the first search is terminated within a year of their hiring.
As the Gaylord College dean search narrows, the law and honors dean searches have accelerated, Harroz told reporters at the March regents meeting, noting he hopes to see those three dean positions filled by July 1.
For prior administrations, for good or for bad, dean searches weren’t always run with executive search firms.
Boren asked Suzette Grillot, dean of international studies from 2012 until 2019, to step in as interim dean as its previous dean left to take a university presidency role. After a few months of working as interim dean, Boren named Grillot the next dean of the college, she told OU Daily.
“He just announced that I was the permanent dean,” Grillot said. “So we'd never really discussed it, he kept saying that he was pleased with my work. … I was working really, really hard and he didn't have any other female deans at the time. … My gender probably played a role, but also I worked really, really, really hard.”
A few months later, Boren appointed Campbell as interim dean and later permanent dean of University College without a search, according to regents minutes.
Grillot said she was prepared to apply and compete against other dean candidates, but Boren went ahead and hired her instead of spending money on a search.
“He said, ‘Why spend money on a search when I know I have the person that I want,’” Grillot said.
Boren also didn’t run a search before naming Kelley to Gaylord’s top job a year after he initially joined faculty in a then-newly created role focused on internship opportunities within the college. Kelley later became interim dean following Joe Foote’s retirement and then was named dean.
Bell chaired several search committees under Boren, including the law dean search that resulted in the hiring of Harroz. Bell said when he became dean, he underwent a national search.
In every case, Bell said, he met with Boren to discuss goals for the dean. After the search committee met with candidates and narrowed down a list, the committee would forward a ranking of three finalists to the president, who would make the final decision.
“In every case for the three searches that I was on, the number one candidate from the search committee was the one the president selected to be the dean,” Bell said. “But it doesn't have to be that way. The president has full discretion as to who he or she chooses to be the dean. And they can choose to ignore the results of the search committee.
“In my experience, that never happened.”
University College Dean Doug Gaffin shows off a statue of centrioles Thursday, June 13, 2012, at Wagner Hall. Gaffin has been a member of the OU community since 1995.
The policies for dean searches, as spelled out by the regents, read that executive search committees should have faculty, student and staff representation and the president makes all appointments and recommendations to regents.
Gaffin, who served for 10 years as dean of University College and almost three years as interim dean of the Honors College, told OU Daily that those colleges function very differently compared to other academic colleges, an element that can make some searches take longer than others.
However, he said for the Honors College, it is vital the university finds a dean soon.
“It’s necessary,” Gaffin said. “Interims can do a lot, but in the end, when you think about things like fundraising, collaborating with development and connecting with your board of visitors, your ability to get things to happen might be limited. So that's something a new dean, a true dean, would be able to pull those levers and make a difference. It's absolutely necessary.”
When Gaffin was asked to oversee the Honors College after Ray departed, he said he was excited, but had no idea how long he’d sign on for. An interim dean can do a lot to keep a college running, however, there are a lot of pieces they cannot control.
“My mindset was just to get in there and keep things running. I started to pick certain battles,” Gaffin said. “There were some things that I thought I could do in a short time. There are other things you just have to resign yourself to. You're not the permanent person, so you have to take that for what it is.”
Following the January OU Board of Regents meeting, Harroz told reporters that, in his time, the delay for the Honors College dean searches has come from within the university, as Wright reexamines the college’s structure, and created a committee to research best practices in honors colleges across the country.
“We all know academic searches just take some time. It's just the nature of the process,” Harroz said. “You've seen the size of the committees. … So they just take, unfortunately, longer than we’d like.”
The Farzaneh Hall International Students Dean's Suite on Feb. 3.
Becoming a premier research university
Harroz has stated several times in recent years that he wants OU to join the ranks of the Association of American Universities.
Bowen said the process for Texas A&M started nearly 15 years before the university became a member in 2001. Bowen served as president of the university from 1994 to 2002.
Membership is by invitation and governed by AAU’s board of directors, however, Bowen said it is all about who you know.
“A&M always had a good relationship with Rice University and the University of Texas, except for in football,” Bowen said. “But the relationships are good. So when we became competitive for AAU membership based on our research funding and scholarly activities, the Rice president and University of Texas president are sitting around the table and they would comment about the quality research they saw at Texas A&M.”
Bowen said the University of California schools were able to advocate for one another for membership, and regional and conference relationships OU is able to build could help it possibly become a member.
The University of Kansas and University of Texas at Austin are the only current Big 12 schools that are AAU members, however Arizona State University, University of Arizona, University of Utah and the University of Colorado Boulder, which are all joining the conference this summer, are members. SEC schools that are AAU members include Vanderbilt University, Texas A&M University, University of Florida and the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Bowen said who universities hire doesn’t directly lead to them becoming AAU members, however, it can have an indirect relationship, as the more researchers or connections to current members a university has can help the university’s chances.
“If you hire a dean and it comes from an AAU school, they will have had the experience of managing large research programs,” Bowen said. “They can be a voice, a call, for the university to invest in research and to invest in facilities that are necessary to support the research. So that experience is valuable, but it may not pay off during the life of that dean.”
Harroz told OU Daily following the October Board of Regents meeting that faculty and staff are the drivers of excellence at OU, and so the hiring of deans factors into obtaining AAU status for the university.
Wright came to OU from Washington State University, which is not an AAU member, however, he previously worked as a professor and director at the University of Arizona. Tomás Díaz de la Rubia, vice president for research and partnerships at OU, previously worked at Purdue University, which is an AAU institution.
“It's indirectly related to the people you hire because they're the ones with the knowledge and the ability to be competitive in this world of universal research,” Bowen said. “A&M spent many, many years hiring the best people they could find (ahead of joining AAU).”
OU is set to have a historic year in 2024-25 with its transition to the SEC and the university on pace to welcome another large freshman class – straining campus housing’s limits – after last year’s broke university records for both total number of students and class diversity.
In roughly four months, OU’s class of 2028 will descend on campus, now under their respective colleges rather than University College as in years past. And as they enter colleges, such as journalism, law, honors, international studies, and earth and energy, they will be led by either a brand new dean or an interim, which Gaffin told OU Daily: “You just have to hope you have good people” to run the colleges.
While the SEC brings chances for more research opportunities, more competitive athletics and more national exposure, OU’s academic leadership is among the areas increasingly feeling the growing pains.
Ever optimistic, Harroz is steadfast that the AAU is the goal, and he is prepared to do what it takes to get there — including a strategic plan refresh to take place over the summer.
If Harroz and Wright successfully find deans this summer for the journalism, law and honors colleges, there will still be open positions for earth and energy, international studies and professional and continuing studies.
“We’re making really good progress toward being able to apply, but we haven’t set a (timeline),” Harroz said. “We’re doing a strategic plan refresh this summer and fall, and a big part of that will be, are we on our path to being able to apply for AAU status? It’s top of mind.”
Read more from summer mag:
This story was edited by Peggy Dodd, Anusha Fathepure and Ismael Lele. Avery Avery, Grace Rhodes, Nikkie Aisha and Mary Ann Livingood copy edited this story.
