DSU narrows the search for vice president of academic affairs and provost to 3 finalists

Mar. 20—DICKINSON — Dickinson State University has narrowed its search for the vice president of academic affairs and provost down to three finalists including Dr. Holly Gruhlke of DSU, Dr.David Fitz of the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford and Dr.Huijian Dong of New Jersey City University.

The vice president and provost position include a variety of responsibilities from faculty matters to overseeing all academic programs at the school. As a provost, the candidate would be considered second in command and leader of the university's Dual Mission initiatives.

The selected candidate will be directly responsible for the planning, implementation, coordination, and evaluation of all academic programs. The position is also responsible for matters pertaining to faculty appointment, retention and evaluation.

"The search committee did a great job of identifying three strong candidates for this key position," stated Steve Easton, DSU president.

The three finalists are expected to make visits to the campus where they will participate in an open forum hosted by DSU in the upcoming weeks. During their campus visits, the candidates will have the opportunity to meet with the direct reports of this position, the President, Interim Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, the search committee one additional time, and with student representatives.

During the open forum, each finalist will have an hour-long spot where they will first share how they would obtain enrollment growth in the competitive higher education environment and will then segue into a Q&A with audience members both in person and online.

All forums will be held in Thompson Auditorium or online through MS Teams, beginning on March 28 from 3-4 pm with Gruhlke, Tuesday, April 4 from 3-4 pm with Fitz, and Thursday, April 6 from 9-10 am with Dong.

"We look forward to having them on campus and getting feedback from DSU stakeholders about the candidates," Easton said in a statement.

Gruhlke is the chief enrollment management and communications officer and dean of the college of education, business, and applied sciences at DSU.

She has been with DSU for 15 years, where she was promoted in 2020 to the dean of the College of Education, Business, and Applied Sciences.

Prior to her position, she served as chair of the School of Business and Entrepreneurship from 2017 to 2020.

She graduated from the University of North Dakota with a Master of Business Administration and earned a Doctorate in Business from Wilmington University.

Gruhlke has taught courses including strategy, management, leadership, and entrepreneurship for the School of Business and Entrepreneurship.

Fitz serves as vice president for institutional integration and community engagement, interim vice president and dean of academic affairs at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.

Fitz has spent more than 30 years in higher education, spending the last 12 years at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.

In 2011 he became the vice president of academic affairs at Pitt-Titusville until he was named interim campus dean in 2012 and then campus dean a year later.

Prior to his time at Bradford, he spent 13 years bouncing between positions in administration from chair to vice president for academic affairs at MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Illinois.

He graduated with a bachelor's degree in international studies from York College of Pennsylvania and earned a doctorate in political science from the University of Pittsburgh.

Dong is interim dean at New Jersey City University where he has worked as an associate professor of finance and the associate dean of the school of business.

As a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA), he has taught advanced investment analysis and financial statement analysis at the college.

Prior to his time at New Jersey City University, he worked as the Academic Coordinator of the Kate Tiedemann School of Business and Finance at the University of South Florida.

Dong earned his Ph.D. in economics with a concentration in finance from the University of Delaware where his research interests included financial market analysis and higher education administration.