Every year, new students are welcomed into FGCU. These students all go through an application process, but they dont always have an idea of what their student life will be like here.
Every year, FGCU also welcomes new faculty members. These faculty members also go through a different process in order to come to FGCU, but their future plans are already determined.
Provost Ronald Toll, who is also vice president of Academic Affairs and holds a doctorate, is in charge of the hiring process, which he describes as a fairly consistent process.
Toll said the process starts when the university advertises the faculty positions in multiple media. The media are usually chronicles of higher education and speci.c journals in different disciplinary areas. The hiring applications then go through a platform called SOAR, and a search advisory committee­which is typically made up of faculty of the same area of knowledge but may include some other members of the community, staff and student representatives­ is established. The department chair of the area of knowledge or the program leader is usually included in the committee as well.
This committee is in charge of narrowing the applicant pool to somewhere between 10 to 12 candidates. These candidates then have a conference call with the entire committee through phone or Skype or any other type of teleconference medium.
Following that, the list is windowed down to typically three to four and these are invited to campus.
We pay all their costs,Toll said.They also participate in giving a class and another on-campus interview. ­The committee then sends recommendation letters to my office and we proceed to expand a salary and contract offer,” he said.
Toll thinks the process is done very well.­
“We’ve been successful to get out top candidates and we’ve made successful hires,” Toll said. This year, FGCU hired 20 new faculty members. Vivek Barghava, who holds a doctorate, is one of the faculty members hired for the Lutgert College of Business. ­I am officially the dean for faculty and administration, so I will be assisting the dean in projects going forward,” Barghava said.
Barghava, who holds a doctorate in finance and is a chartered financial analyst, worked for the past 18 years at Alcorn State University in Mississippi.
I chose [FGCU] because I think theres potential for growing this program and the college,Barghava said.
Ingrid Buckley, who was hired as a software engineering assistant professor and holds a doctorate, is another new member of faculty.
“Its going great so far,” Buckley said.They have a lot of resources for you to work ef.ciently. Buckley said some of these resources include workshops on academic strategies to better prepare for classes and on different people you
need to know.
Buckley expects to help students as much as she can to make their learning experience as engaging and rich as possible.
A new faculty member was hired to start a physician assistant studies program at the university. Robert Hawkes will be the program director as well as an assistant professor when the program is started.
“I’m the only one here right now,” Hawkes said. “My job for the next year and a half is to build the program.”
Hawkes said the plan is for the program to be established for 2017.
Kyle Szako, the new orchestra director of FGCU and an assistant professor who holds a doctorate, is content with his new position at the Bower School of Music.
“It’s going to take some time and work to build the program to where I’ll like to see it,” Szako said.
Szako just moved to Florida fromWisconsin, where he used to work at Riton College for four years. He is now looking forward to his life in a warmer weather.
“I’m looking forward at all the developments and being part of the community here,” Szako said.