After a national search to find a director to lead Baker’s new General Education Program, the committee in charge made the crucial decision to put all hiring on hold.

“It was a real tough decision to put off hiring,” Rand Ziegler, vice president and dean of college of arts and sciences, said. “The timing was pretty bad, and it was around the time we had to say ‘bye’ to some valuable people.”

The national search committee had three prospective candidates come to Baker’s campus over the summer for final interviews. Once the applicants’ strengths and weaknesses were examined, and the timing of the hiring was taken into consideration,

University President Pat Long made the final decision.

“We are always looking for someone outstanding,” Long said. “When we invest in someone, we want to make sure it is the right investment. The timing of hiring a new director was premature. We will do a continual internal search for leadership.”

For the spring term, the General Education Committee will be looking to hire an interim director to take over for the next year and a half. The committee will, for the time being, look to find a currently employed member of faculty and administration. After that, it will look into starting the application process again.

“We struggled tremendously with this decision,” Ziegler said. “President Long provided great support and took real initiative to do whatever needed to take place. The president, me and the provost all decided it would be tough at that point in time to hire someone.”

Even without a permanent director in place, the piloting of new alternative LA courses this year is already under way.

Long said even though the courses have changed, what the classes emphasize has stayed the same.

“The main emphasis for students is to learn to write, communicate and think critically,” Long said.

Tentatively, until someone is chosen in the spring to fill the position, the committees will continue to stay in place and work on the functioning model of the General Education Program.

Associate Professor of French Erin Joyce is part of the planning committee and is enthused about the response received with the presentation of the program model.

“We had a great fall faculty workshop,” Joyce said. “The feedback was really good and they liked what was proposed. I am excited to get things going and to dive into it.”

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