During her visit to Kent State Thursday, Judy Pearson, a College of Communication and Information dean candidate, met with a small group of communication studies graduate and doctoral students for a question and answer session in the Moulton Hall ballroom.

Concerns the students raised to Pearson were her time commitment to Kent State should she become dean of CCI and her plans to differentiate Kent State’s presence from other nationally recognized schools in the area of communication.

In terms of commitment, Pearson said she envisions spending five to 10 years as dean of CCI before retiring from the position and limiting her role to faculty involvement.

Pearson said her agenda would focus on internal and external development in order to “put Kent State on the map.”

The future of the college must be different from the past, but it’s hard to achieve a new future when surrounded by old ways, Pearson said.

Her solution for progression is for directors of the CCI colleges to think creatively and playfully to advance their programs, encouraging collaboration amongst the schools to “pull down barriers and limitations.”

Pearson noted three specific areas of concern with her agenda: service, support and celebration.

She said she embraces a “servant-leadership” style, where her role as dean would be one of serving the students and the faculty to create success.

“Students need to be served,” Pearson said. For Pearson, celebration means national visibility for the college. She said that CCI is a relatively new college, so opportunities to be recognized have been limited. But she said she wants to change that by encouraging more grant and research opportunities for the faculty and students. She also said she wants to see the Web utilized more to promote student success. She said this would accelerate national visibility.

Currently, Pearson is the associate dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and a professor of communication at North Dakota State University.

Contact College of Communication and Information reporter Darren D’Altorio at [email protected].