Author: Erik Parker, Torch Staff
The Diplomacy and World Affairs (DWA) department has not yet made progress on its search for a new administrative chair, but is preparing to begin its search for an endowed chair. The position of endowed chair was made possible by a large grant and a search committee is currently being formed to evaluate candidates.
Last school year, the Young family, which has made many significant contributions to the College, gave the DWA department a gift of more than $12 million. The DWA department’s current administrative chair Michael McDonald said the endowed chair position is “one component” of the grant.
McDonald said the new endowed chair is not exactly a chair, because the position “is simply a title for a distinguished faculty member within the College. The faculty member’s salary and some other expenses come from these endowment funds.”
The search committee for the endowed chair will be headed by Laurence de Rycke Distinguished Professor of Economics Woody Studenmund. “He is just beginning the process of putting together the search committee and beginning the search process,” McDonald said.
The rest of the search committee will not be made up entirely of economics professors, DWA Student Advisory Committee Secretary (DWA SAC) Claire Anderson (sophomore) said. “There will either be a couple of DWA students on the committee, or a student committee will be created-probably formed with DWA SAC members and DWA faculty recommendations-and will run concurrently to advise, discuss and input,” Anderson said.
Whoever is selected for the endowed chair position will have close ties to international political economics. “The endowment is from a former economy professor here at Oxy and it’s important to the family to honor that in some way,” Anderson said.
She is hopeful that students will continue to be involved in important decisions in the DWA department. “DWA SAC has scrapped weekly meetings due to low attendance and now [we] focus our efforts and funds on a couple of DWA student/faculty mixers each semester,” she said.
At these mixers, students can talk with DWA professors and raise concerns in a more casual environment instead of through DWA SAC meetings, Anderson said.
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