Search for School of Art director in progress

UTRGV’s School of Art and Design has narrowed the list of candidates for director from eight to four and hopes to fill the position by August. 

Joy Esquierdo, interim director, wrote in an email to The Rider last Tuesday, “I will just say that the process is going well, and the School of Art & Design invited four qualified candidates for on-campus interviews.”

“Two have completed their visit/interview and one is pending. The other has not made arrangements yet,” she wrote.

The university opened the application period for the position on Oct. 13. 

 Esquierdo said the four candidates are Ed Pogue of Bethany College, Vilas Tonape of Methodist University, Christopher Whittey of Columbus State University and Elizabeth Berger, an associate professor and design program coordinator at UTRGV. 

Gina Palacios, associate director of the School of Art and an assistant professor in painting and drawing, said Professor Robert Bradley, committee chair, and four other faculty members from each department in the School of Art and Design are part of the search committee.  

Palacios said the committee created a finalist list and invited them for a campus tour and visit. 

“With the campus visit, you know, they come in and they have a meeting with the provost or if she’s not available, the [assistant vice president],” she said. “They meet with the current director, they meet with the dean and they do a research lecture and then also a teaching demo. … And then they have a formal interview with the search committee.” 

Along with the process, the candidates have a meet and greet with students and faculty on the Edinburg and Brownsville campuses. 

The meet and greet with students is so the candidates can learn to work with UTRGV’s specific student population, since a lot of the candidates are not from the area, according to Palacios. 

“We want students to meet them, see them,” she said. “They’re welcome to come to the teaching demo and research demo and then students can ask questions of them, too,” she said. “So it’s a back and forth between students and the candidate and then the same thing happens with faculty.”

Palacios said the four finalists caught the committee’s attention because of their leadership skills.

“We were looking at the candidates to see if they have, you know, the art background,” she said. “And then also their leadership skills so had they been a director before, or higher, like a dean, or how long have they had their leadership backgrounds. 

“And then, in the interviews we asked them a lot of questions about, like, have you had multi campus, you know, all the things that we have here. A lot of times, you know, they’re not going to match, but we try and get as close.”

Palacios said the committee’s goal is to have a new director by August. 

“It’s a long process, and we want to make sure we get the best candidate that’s going to fit not only the university, but also our community,” she said. “And we’re really hopeful that one or maybe multiple candidates will be amazing and we’ll have a hard decision. That’s what I’m hoping, that as we continue meeting with them, that we’ll get a really great candidate that’s a great fit.”

Jazmine Aguilar, a graphic design junior, said it is important for the School of Art and Design to interview and get to know the candidates before hiring. 

“You could just see their qualifications on paper, but you won’t really know until you see them talk and interact with people how they really are,” Aguilar said. 

She hopes that the new director will add more programs and classes on the Brownsville campus.

“Hopefully, [the director] does something good by bringing more exciting things and because, right now, everything’s kind of just very basic,” Aguilar said. “Again, it feels empty. When the new director comes, I would hope [they] would be excited and want to bring new things in.”