Eastern Michigan University Regents Jan Brandon and Steve Gordon, presidential search coordinators, announced Oct. 14 that Dennis Beagen, head of the department of communication and theatre arts, has been selected to chair the Regents' Advisory Committee for the selection of the president.
"Dennis is a highly-regarded member of the University community whose experience and knowledge of Eastern will be invaluable as we conduct this very important search," Brandon said.
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Gordon said Brandon and he decided to select the advisory committee chair now so that person could be involved in the selection of the search firm. "Selecting the right firm to help us attract the best candidates for president of EMU is the first critical step in our process. We wanted the chair to be involved from step one," Gordon said.
"I am honored to serve as chair of the advisory committee and look forward to working with Regents Brandon and Gordon. I've had the opportunity to spend several hours discussing the search process with them and look forward to selecting the search firm so that we can move forward," Beagen said.
Beagen has been a member of the Eastern Michigan University community for more than 37 years. His roles have included lecturer, faculty member, department head, interim associate provost and interim dean of Continuing Education.
While serving as a faculty member, Beagen also served as director of EMU's nationally recognized forensic program. During his tenure as director of forensics, EMU was awarded eight national team championships and more than 40 individual national championships in intercollegiate forensic competition.
In the summer of 1981, Beagen was appointed academic department head for the Department of Communication and Theatre Arts, and has served in that position longer than any other EMU academic department head. For a brief period, the spring and summer of 1987, Beagen served as interim associate provost for Academic Affairs under then-Provost Ron Collins. For two years, 1996-98, Dennis served as interim dean of Continuing Education, where he initiated the University's involvement in online offerings, as well as implemented the foundation of EMU's current off-campus program.
Throughout his career, Beagen has had numerous assignments, including special assistant to the Provost for EMU's Campaign for Scholars; a member of many EMU-AAUP and UAW contract settlements; a member of the EMU Alumni Association's board of directors; chairperson of the Departmental Evaluation Documents Committee; executive director of the Michigan Speech Communication Association, associate editor of the National Forensic Association Journal and chairperson for numerous search committees.
Beagen is the recipient of the EMU Alumni Association's Teaching Excellence Award, the Division of Marketing and Student Affairs' Distinguished Faculty Award, and has been recognized for his outstanding service and leadership by the Michigan Speech Association and the National Forensic Association.
Brandon, Gordon, Dana Aymond, secretary to the Board of Regents, and Beagen are interviewing search firms and expect to select a firm within the next couple of weeks. The firm will then work with them to develop a search process and timeline.
Updates regarding the search process are available at www.emich.edu/presidentialsearch.
