Stephen F. Austin State University

The largest college at Stephen F. Austin State University may soon have a new dean. Students, faculty and administrators will meet with the three administrators hoping to lead the College of Liberal and Applied Arts during the candidates’ two-day on-campus visits.

F. Andrew Schoolmaster, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Eastern Kentucky University, will visit Nacogdoches beginning March 18.

Schoolmaster, a geography professor, holds degrees from Kent State University, including a bachelor’s degree in history, and a master’s and doctorate in geography.

At Eastern Kentucky, Schoolmaster coordinated college efforts to secure $59.1 million for a new science building. In addition to creating a lecture series at the university and initiating a junior faculty mentoring program, Schoolmaster has taught courses in applied geography, environmental science, and spatial analysis and mapping.

Schoolmaster was a member of the University of North Texas faculty from 1980 through 2004 and was named a Student Association Honor Professor in 1990. He has written 26 refereed articles. He has served as president of the Association of Arid Lands Studies and the Western Social Science Association.

Brian M. Murphy, co-director of the European Union Center for the University System of Georgia, arrives in Nacogdoches on March 21. Murphy also serves as professor of political science at North Georgia College and State University.

In addition to a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Dayton in Ohio, Murphy holds master’s and doctorate degrees in political science from Miami University.

Murphy’s previous administrative positions at the college have included head of the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice, director of the honors program, and coordinator of international programs.

In 1998, Murphy was appointed general secretary of the Transatlantic Information Exchange Service, a program launched by the European Commission and United States Information Agency. More recently, he was appointed to a strategic planning committee for the University System of Georgia to prepare higher education in the state to leverage competition in the global economy.

In the past five years, Murphy has written grants that have earned more than $1 million in external funding. He has received awards including Distinguished Professor, ACE Award for Internationalizing the Curriculum, and a Fulbright-Hays Award.

On April 3, Dr. Madonne M. Miner, associate dean of the Arts and Sciences College at Texas Tech University, will begin on-campus interviews.

Miner graduated summa cum laude from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn. Her master’s degree in English is from the University of Minnesota, and she holds a doctoral degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

At Texas Tech University, Miner is responsible for compliance with equal employment opportunity guidelines and monitoring new tenure-track faculty members. She works with marketing and outreach for the college and publishes a weekly college-wide e-newsletter. She also has served the university as director of graduate studies in English and department chair.

Miner has taught courses from first-year writing to graduate research methods, in addition to courses in American literature of the late 19th and 20th centuries. She is the author of “Insatiable Appetites: Twentieth-Century American Women's Bestsellers.”

Miner was inducted into the Texas Tech Teaching Academy and has received the university’s Graduate English Society Leadership Award.

The College of Liberal and Applied Arts includes the departments of communication; criminal justice; English and philosophy; history; military science; modern languages; political science, geography and public administration; psychology; social work; and sociology, gerontology and anthropology. Dr. James Standley, current dean of the college, has announced his intention to retire.