Michael Blum, the fourth dean candidate for the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences, shared his vision for the college with students, faculty and staff during a public forum Wednesday afternoon.
The College of Arts and Sciences has been without a dean since July when David Wrobel stepped down after serving six years in the position to become the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Stony Brook University in New York.
Blum has been the associate dean of the research and creative activity office at the University of Tennessee since 2023. He also served as a professor and associate professor for the college’s ecology and evolutionary biology department. He previously worked as a research professor for Tulane University.
Blum earned his bachelor’s degree in integrative biology from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1995 and his doctoral degree in zoology from Duke University in 2002.
Blum’s research focuses on sustainability and socioecology, particularly human-environment interactions in riverine and coastal ecosystems. He coordinated major initiatives centered on New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and led efforts to foster adaptive watershed management.
Identity, invention and investment
Blum introduced his vision for the college: “identity, invention and investment.” In his presentation, he applied this analysis to research, faculty and student success.
For research, Blum said the college needs to focus on aspirations and build on legacy investments. Blum also said he would take advantage of opportunities to solidify the identity of the college.
At the University of Tennessee, Blum mentioned partnerships related to radiopharmaceuticals for cancer research and the automobile industry.
“You have to make institutional investments to make these kinds of operations work,” Blum said.
In faculty affairs, Blum wants to focus on hiring and staff retention, specifically looking at long-term solutions similar to a policy that’s been implemented at the University of Tennessee.
“We’ve taken a different approach,” Blum said. “The expectation is it's not just an annual planning process but we’re looking over longer-time horizons.”
Blum mentioned the University of Tennessee College of Arts and Sciences’ process called “constellation hiring.” Constellation hiring is intended to bring together tenure-line faculty members whose research, scholarship and creative activity can help bring new, interdisciplinary perspectives, according to the University of Tennessee's website.
Blum said his approach to familiarize himself with the specifics of the college would be by visiting faculty on their own terms, at events, meetings and in offices.
“It's incredibly important to have a great team,” Blum said. “People who you trust, delegate important tasks with and they get it done, right? And so the idea is to solidify the team.”
Regarding student enrollment, Blum said he recognizes the importance of reaching out to prospective students and supporting the brand of the college through “swag” like sweatshirts, T-shirts and lanyards.
“We (have to) think of these as opportunities for reinforcing identity, providing content material that is very engaging from a client perspective,” Blum said. “We're here to provide education that has value and has to be perceived from students as being valuable.”
Blum said creativity and inventiveness are key for student success. As an example, Blum mentioned building up programs like game studies, which can bridge gaps between interests among majors in the college.
“We think very carefully about academic program development. We invest in development of compelling programs that may be building up classrooms that may be bringing in different kinds of multimedia engagement,” Blum said.
Blum said that this process will take time and believes it’s important to have group discussions to be more effective.
In response to a question about how he will advocate for the importance of arts and sciences given climate regarding higher education in Oklahoma, Blum believes the pathway from an undergraduate degree in an arts and sciences program to job placement is often undervalued and said there is opportunity to more effectively communicate its importance.
“We point to these … opportunities for investment and the development of broadly applicable skill sets and personal discovery, but there's also career placement opportunities there that don't necessarily foreground,” Blum said. “Connecting those dots is really important.”
Language requirement
OU Provost’s office requested an evaluation of the College of Arts and Sciences foreign language requirements in November, which raised concerns from the OU community that the undergraduate language requirement would be removed.
Blum said that at The University of Tennessee, the college of business made the decision to drop the language requirement for arts and sciences, which dramatically decreased funding for language programs.
“The lesson learned there is to get out ahead and have more agency in those kinds of decisions,” Blum said. “And so part of this is … having agency, having discussions ahead of when somebody else might make a decision for you.”
Aside from focusing on communication and advocacy for issues that may be out of his control, Blum said decisions like these should be made based on the effects on students.
“Whether you're talking about languages or you're talking about astrophysics, there has to be something that's going to engage students, where your enrollments should be contingent on interest,” Blum said.
The final presentation will be given by Roger Thompson from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Friday in Zarrow Hall. Thompson’s meet and greet will be from 5:15 to 6 p.m. Friday in the Dodge Student Success and Advising Center in the Physical Sciences Center.
This story was edited by Ismael Lele and Ana Barboza.
