CSE Dean Search Staff Listening Sessions - sent March 16, 2021

Dear CSE faculty, staff and students:

On behalf of the provost’s search committee for dean of the University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering (CSE), I am writing to invite you to take part in a virtual listening session to provide input on our search for the next dean. Your input will help the committee and search consultants Greg Esposito and associates of the executive search firm Isaacson, Miller gain a deeper understanding of the school.

We have scheduled the following listening sessions:

Faculty Listening Session
Monday, March 22, 2021
8:30-9:15 a.m.
Zoom link

Staff Listening Session
Friday, March 19, 2021
10-10:45 a.m.
Zoom link

Student Listening Session
Tuesday, March 23, 2021
12:45 - 1:30 p.m.
Zoom link

The majority of the meeting will focus on discussing the position itself and the important opportunities and challenges that will face the college. We would like you to be thoughtful about the future of the CSE and how we could measure the outcomes and successes of the next dean. More specifically, we would like your input on the following:

1. Objectives for the new dean. What do you want the new dean to accomplish? What are the desired outcomes for the role? How will you know in three to five years that the right person was hired? What will have happened?
2. Qualifications and experience. Based on the objectives identified, what do you think are the qualifications and experience of an ideal candidate? What is essential and what might be helpful?
3. Strengths and opportunities. What are the unique strengths, challenges, opportunities, or structural/cultural dynamics within CSE that should be considered when looking for a new dean?
4. Personal qualities. What are the personal attributes most important for this role?
5. Source and candidate recommendations. Who should the search firm contact in the outreach to identify candidates? They will draw upon their own networks but they want to tap into ours as well. This certainly means suggestions of possible candidates, but just as important, suggestions of good sources that might lead to strong candidates.

Once the search firm has had an opportunity to meet with you, and other key groups and individuals they will synthesize what they have learned into an Opportunity and Challenge Profile. It will provide a compelling description of the CSE, its history, and mission as well as a realistic and enticing picture of the challenges, measures of success, and ideal qualifications for the role. Once completed, the search firm will share this document broadly with prospective candidates and key sources.

After this discussion, you will have the opportunity to share names of individuals who might be considered as candidates, or who might be helpful sources of leads.

We realize this time may not work for everyone given the challenges with calendars. If you are not able to attend the listening session, you may submit written input via a comment form coming soon on the CSE Dean Search web page or by email to umn-csesearch@umn.edu.

All written comments and emails will be shared only with the search committee and search consultants.

Thank you for your participation in this important effort.

Sincerely,

Sri Zaheer, CSE Dean Search Committee Chair
Dean, Carlson School of Management