By Sarah Robinson
Special to the Florida State Times
Donald Foss, chairman of the largest psychology department in the United States and a pioneer in studies of the human brain, has been named dean of FSU's College of Arts and Sciences.
Foss, 55, comes to FSU from the University of Texas in Austin, where he administered a department with 1,800 undergraduate majors (FSU's psychology department is considered large with 900).
FSU President Sandy D'Alemberte, who chose Foss from two finalists selected by a search committee, described the new dean as "elegant," and noted his "real academic accomplishment."
"He has a history of administrative accomplishments as well," D'Alemberte said. "He has been able to raise quite a lot of money, and these days that is important in a dean."
Foss acknowledged that he's good at raising money but said he doesn't want to underestimate his desire to be a leader within the school: "I'd like to contribute to the college's increasing focus on excellence in both teaching and research."
He said he hopes to build bridges from the college the community. Over the next few years, he plans "to get the faculty off the campus and get business and political leaders onto the campus, so that a true exchange takes place."
"I see public confidence as the major issue in education today," said Foss. "My opinion is that teaching is almost certainly of higher quality than the public's perception of it... I believe the university is the finest institution on the planet for developing human resources."
Foss will take over Aug. 8 from Fred Leysieffer, a statistics professor who has been acting dean for a year. "We all owe a debt of gratitude to Fred Leysieffer for his excellent, capable and steady leadership of the college," said Lawrence Abele, FSU provost and vice president for academic affairs. Abele, a biologist, was dean of arts and sciences from 1991 to 1994.
Foss has spent 28 years studying the way the brain processes information and has pioneered techniques for measuring how humans make use of context in understanding what they see and hear. He hopes to set up a lab at FSU to continue that research.
He has published almost 50 articles in academic journals and has co-written or edited three books. He was the editor of "Contemporary Psychology" from 1980 to 1985 and currently is associate editor of the "Annual Review of Psychology." As the publications chairman of the American Psychological Association, he administered a $25-million annual budget. He has also won teaching awards.
Foss said he expects to encourage high standards for faculty and students, help the faculty meet teaching and research goals and be an advocate for the university and the college.
"My first priority is to learn the college itself," he said. "Then I will ask people for support. I want to meet and get to know the faculty, try to understand their concerns and dreams."
Foss is not accustomed to being the new guy on campus. He spent 28 years at the University of Texas and, before that, 26 years in Minneapolis, where he completed both undergraduate and Ph.D. studies at the University of Minnesota. He went to Harvard for a post doctoral fellowship and then was hired to teach at the University of Texas. (He used to say he was trying to convince his mother that he could hold down a job.)
"I love my department and Austin," he said. "Leaving was the hardest decision I ever made in my life.
"Being given the opportunity to be at a college that constitutes the heart of the university just seemed like such a wonderful challenge, it overcame the love of place, here where we've raised our daughters."
Foss describes himself as a realist and an optimist. He says he reads non-fiction, plays squash and likes alpine hiking.
Now he jokes that he wants to climb the highest peak in Florida (a 345-foot rise in northeast Walton County).
Search took seven months
The search that found Donald Foss to head FSU's largest college was a seven-month, nationwide process in which almost 100 applicants were considered.
"We were charged with conducting a national search for the strongest candidate we could find," said Professor Anne Rowe, chairwoman of the search committee (and chairwoman of the FSU English department). "It was a matter of which individual had the vision to take the College of Arts and Sciences into the next century."
Rowe described the committee of nine women and six men as "a group of people very interested in diversity." Toward that end, national ads were placed, almost 90 historically black universities were notified and organizations such as the Urban League were asked to help.
The list of applicants was narrowed to 20, then to seven. Of the finalists, two women candidates withdrew, leaving four men and one woman to be interviewed.
Each of the five finalists spent three days at FSU in a grueling schedule of interviews.
The two candidates the search committee recommended to FSU President Sandy D'Alemberte were Foss and Jack Burns, head of the astronomy department at New Mexico State University.
Members of the search committee for dean of the College of Arts and Sciences were:
Dr. Anne Rowe English department
Nancy Leasure psychology
Pat Martin Arts &Sciences
Dr. Maxine Montgomery English
Sarah Phillips student
Dr. Penny Ralston human sciences
Dr. George Weaver psychology
Lorene Whitecross student
Dr. Perrin Wright mathematics
Dr. Bill Cloonan modern languages
Dr. Paul Cottle physics
Dr. Nancy De Grummond classics
Dr. Marc E. Freeman biological science
Dr. Susan I. Hruska computer science
Dr. Neil Jumonville history