Arved Larsen was the first candidate to visit campus in the interview process for the dean of the College of Arts and Humanities.

Larsen, professor of music and former associate dean of fine arts at Illinois State University, began the interview process at 9 a.m. Monday in a meeting with the search committee.

Each hour, Larsen met with a different group related to the College of Arts and Humanities.

A social open to the campus community ended the candidate’s first day of campus interviews.

Throughout the course of the day, Larsen met with the search committee, the chairs of the college, the faculty of the college and ate lunch with students with majors in the college.

“It was essentially an interview at each meeting,” Larsen said.

Individuals at each session had the opportunity to ask questions.

Larsen will continue his interview process today with meetings with the Dean’s Council, President Bill Perry, Provost Blair Lord, the search committee and another open session with arts and humanities faculty before ending with a tour of the community.

In his tour of the campus, Larsen said he was impressed with the Doudna Fine Arts Center.

The tour primarily focused on the parts of campus that deal with the College of Arts and Humanities.

“I don’t think you know how lucky you are to have that art center,” Larsen said.

He said the center is something substantial and should really impact the whole campus as well as the region.

Larsen said this was going to be a project he would be looking at.

He said as a “music guy” he is interested in what Doudna offers.

Larsen said he had previously visited Eastern but had not been on campus since before the construction of Doudna.

He said he likes the attitude that it has the potential to serve the whole campus and region.

Glenn Hild, chair of the art department and a member of the search committee, provided Larsen’s tour of the College of Arts and Humanities services.

Hild also said he visited with Larsen during other sessions.

Larsen indicated a desire to have open communication with the faculty and staff, which is always a good thing, he said.

Hild said Larsen has an understanding of the needs of the college.

“From my perspective, his interest in that arts is an important thing,” he said.

Mary Anne Hanner, chair of the search committee and dean of the College of Sciences, had spoken with Larsen previously, but Monday was her first time meeting him in person

“I felt like he was well prepared and felt like (the interviews) went smoothly,” she said.

She said he knows a lot about Eastern and would bring some good experience to the position.

Larsen served as the associate dean of Fine Arts at Illinois State from 2000 until 2002 when the position was eliminated because of budget cuts.

He has been a full-time faculty member from August of 2002 until present, and served as chairman in the department of music at ISU from 1990 until 2000.

Larsen was associate dean and professor of music in the Crane School of Music at State University of New York at Potsdam from 1986 to 1990.

From 1978 to 1986, Larsen was coordinator and music professor in the department of music at Paine College in Augusta, Ga.

Jeri Matteson-Hughes, computer technology for the college of arts and humanities, is part of the dean’s office staff and will be working directly with the candidate hired.

“He’s my immediate supervisor,” she said.

Matteson-Hughes has not been a part of the search committee, and met with him for the first time Monday in the open session for the staff.

“I thought we had a wonderful conversation,” Matteson-Hughes said. “I learned about his perspective of managing a college of humanities.”

She said she looks forward to meeting the other candidates as well.

“I suspect we’re going to have a hard time choosing,” Matteson-Hughes said.

The next candidates to visit will be John Omachonu, the associate dean of the College of Mass Communications at Middle Tennessee State University, in Murfreesboro, Tenn., on Feb. 17 and 18, and William Clow, interim associate dean of the college of liberal studies at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse, on Feb. 19 and 20.

The final two interviews will be with Dana Ringuette, chair of the English department at Eastern, on Feb. 24 and 25 and Richard Sax, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college at Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio, on Feb. 26 and 27.

As the first candidate brought to campus, Larsen now enters a waiting game.

During the first week of March, Hanner said the committee will meet and look at the input from each candidate’s visit to campus.

The input is gathered from evaluation forms from those who attended the interviews. These forms need to be returned to the College of Sciences by Feb. 27, Hanner said.

The committee collects all comments from the evaluations and has a numerical summary.

The committee then provides a summary of each candidate’s strengths to the provost. Lord will then make a recommendation to the president.

Emily Zulz can be reached at 581-7942 or at eazulz@eiu.edu.

From left, Arved Larsen, dean candidate for the college of arts and humanities, talks with James Ochwa-Echel, assistant professor of the secondary education foundation, and John Martone, English professor, during a social hour Monday night in the Martin L

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