The English and computer science departments are nearing the end of their respective searches for new, full-time faculty.
Within the English department, there are three finalists who specialize in fiction writing, all of whom are published authors. The three candidates will hold readings of their works in the next week.
Lindsay Starck read from her recently published novel, “Noah’s Wife,” on Feb. 1. Bryan Hurt will read selections from his 2015 collection of short stories, “Everyone Wants to be Ambassador to France,” at 10 a.m. on Feb. 5 and Lindsey Drager will read from her 2015 novel, “The Sorrow Proper,” at 3 p.m. on Feb. 8. The readings will be held in Blackmore Library room 110.
Leaders of the search, Kevin Griffith and David Summers, said they are optimistic about these candidates.
The computer science department is looking for a qualified professor to take over the duties of a faculty member who left the university last year.
“We’d like somebody who can teach our artificial intelligence course, our networking course, our computer architecture course, and maybe the database course,” said David Reed, department chair.
Reed said that he is looking for a professor who compliments his own areas of expertise to share the teaching load.
One candidate was interviewed last week, and another presented in the Blackmore library on Feb. 2. Reed said that there are still more candidates to come.
“Ideally we would be making a recommendation to the provost’s office before mid-semester break,” Reed said. “It just depends on how quickly the provost’s office is able to contact [the candidate] and get an offer … I think we’d like to have somebody hired by … mid-March … and then they would start here in August.”
While the English and computer science departments near the end of their searches, similar searches are underway in the political science and philosophy departments.
