Second Honors College Dean Candidate to Hold Open Forum

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Jerry Heron

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The second of three candidates for the position of dean of the University of Arkansas Honors College will speak to the campus community Thursday, Sept. 18.

Jerry Herron, dean of the Irvin D. Reid Honors College at Wayne State University in Detroit, will make an open forum presentation from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 18, in Room 120 of the Reynolds Center. A half-hour reception will follow his talk.

All who attend the presentation or meet with the candidate are encouraged to share their feedback by completing an online evaluation form. Feedback forms for the candidates may be submitted until the survey closes in early October.

Herron earned a bachelor’s degree in English with high honors from the University of Texas at Austin, followed by master’s and doctoral degrees in English completed at Indiana University. His career at Wayne State University spans 32 years. In addition to teaching and serving as associate chair in the English department, he was director of the American Studies Program and interim assistant provost. In 2002 he became chair of the university’s honors program following a national search, with the charge to grow the program into a college. In 2008, he was named founding dean of the Irvin D. Reid Honors College at Wayne State. Herron has served on the board of the National Collegiate Honors Council since 2009 and was recently elected vice president; he is slated to become president in two years. Among other honors, he has twice received the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching from Wayne State University.

His publications include two books, Universities and the Myth of Cultural Decline, and AfterCulture: Detroit and the Humiliation of History. He is currently finishing a third, titled Living with Detroit: An All-Purpose History of America. His articles and reviews have been widely published. He served as associate editor of Criticism for 18 years and was cofounder and editor of Structuralist Review. He has also published articles and given presentations on honors education.

The other two candidates are Naomi Yavneh Klos, director of the University Honors Program at Loyola University in New Orleans, and Sumana Datta, executive director of the Honors and Undergraduate Research Program at Texas A&M University in College Station. Complete vitas for all of the candidates are available online at the Honors College website.

The search committee is led by Javier Reyes, vice provost for distance education and professor of economics, and includes Sidney Burris, professor of English and director of the Fulbright Honors Program; Ed Clausen, interim department head and professor, Ralph E. Martin Leadership Chair in chemical engineering; Kirstin Erickson, associate professor of anthropology and director of Latin American and Latino Studies; Gary Ferrier, University Professor of Economics; Carol Gattis, associate dean of the Honors College and associate professor of engineering; Padma Mana, Honors College student ambassador and Bodenhamer Fellow; Mark Power, associate vice chancellor for development; Ann Rosso, Campaign Arkansas Steering Committee member and chair of the Honors College Campaign Committee; and Nan Smith-Blair, associate professor of nursing.