As the dean of the College of Social Sciences looks to return to teaching, the college has appointed an interim dean until they find a more permanent solution.

Luis Mirón plans to leave his position as dean at the end of his

appointment, leaving associate professor Roger White to take over in the interim.

White, who only plans to serve as interim dean for under a year until Loyola can find a permanent dean, was selected for the position because of his prior experience in leadership positions, said Marx Manganaro, provost and vice president of Academic Affairs.

“Dr. White has a wealth of faculty and administrative experience here at Loyola, including as chair of political science and as adviser to the provost on faculty matters,” Manganaro said.

White said he was glad to be able to help out the college by assuming the role of interim dean, but said that his role will be different since he is not holding the position for the normal fiveyear appointment.

“I’m taking on more of a caretaker role while the college conducts its own dean search,” he said. “My personal goal is that I want to turn over a college that is in good shape. But I don’t have a grand vision because it seems unfair as an interim to take some long term vision and try to imprint that on the college.”

While White hopes to be teaching again at the end of his run as interim dean, Mirón hopes to move away from administrative work as well when his appointment as dean ends.

“At this stage I decided I really wanted to return to scholarship and teaching,” he said. “I’m pretty much way past mid-career so I’d be interested in returning to my scholarship and civic engagement work.”

Mirón also mentioned that he wants to devote more time to the Institute for Quality and Equity in Education and help create solutions to the problems presented by the public school education system in New Orleans.

Additionally, Mirón said he plans to stay busy during his year away from Loyola. “I wouldsay out of my 25 years in higher education, in 24 of these I’ve had referred articles or book chapters accepted for publication. While on sabbatical next year, I will have the opportunity to continue publishing at the University of California as a Visiting Scholar,” he said.

In the meantime, the college will begin to consider potential candidates over the next academic year. The process for selecting White as the interim is not as involved as finding a candidate to take over on a long-term basis, according to Manganaro. With the help of a national search firm, Loyola will use a committee to help sort through candidates and make sure that every potential dean has their objectives clearly defined before they accept the position.

White did note that there is room for improvement within the college, but said overall that he is more concerned with making it easy for the next dean to step into his or her role.

“In many ways I’m preparing the way for someone that’s going to come after me,” he said. “I’m always very comfortable as a facilitator.”

Hasani Grayson can be reached at [email protected] 

Luis Mirón, dean of the College of Social Sciences, speaks with Peter Burns, professor of political science. Mirón is stepping down as dean of the College of Social Sciences. (COURTESY OF HAROLD BAQUET)