Arkansas State University has released the names of three finalists for the position of executive vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost, the second highest position at the university.
The finalists, who have extensive administrative experience, are an inventor, a linguist and a historian.
One is from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Two work at universities in other states and hold dual citizenship -- one in Europe, the other in South America.
Each of the three finalists has a doctorate and experience at publicly funded universities.
ASU Chancellor Todd Shields, in consultation with the university's search committee, selected the finalists.
They are: Mark Samuel Francis Clarke of the University of Houston; Joao Sedycias of New Jersey City University; and Calvin White Jr. of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.
Clarke, 57, is the associate provost for faculty development and faculty affairs at the University of Houston. He completed undergraduate studies in biological sciences at Manchester Metropolitan University in Manchester, England, followed by graduate study at Christie Hospital and Holt Radium Institute in Manchester.
He finished his M.I. degree in pharmacology and his Ph.D. in cell biology and microchemistry, also from Manchester Metropolitan University. He has held other administration positions at the University of Houston, a public university and the third largest university in Texas, including associate vice chancellor for technology transfer. He has dual citizenship in the U.K. and U.S.
Clarke moved to Houston in 1994 to be a National Research Council Fellow. Later, he became a senior staff scientist at NASA-Johnson Space Center.
At NASA, he focused on musculoskeletal deconditioning, countermeasure development and biomedical monitoring during manned spaceflight, conducting life science experiments aboard the KC-135 zero gravity plane, space shuttle and International Space Station.
Clarke, an inventor, has been awarded more than a dozen patents and is a founder of two life sciences startups.
His inventions include orthobiologic technology for the manufacture of large amounts of human and animal bone material at low cost.
"Most faculty inventors, including myself, do not begin their research careers focused on creating or commercializing new technologies, nor do they usually know where to start when presented with such an opportunity," he said in a University of Houston internal publication article in 2020, upon becoming a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.
"Helping faculty members and students transition fundamental discoveries into commercially valuable technologies and products is not only a key part of our mission as a Tier One research university, it is critical to our region's economic prosperity and ensuring that the U.S. remains competitive in an innovation-driven global economy."
Sedycias, 66, is dean of the William J. Maxwell College of Arts and Sciences at New Jersey City University. Sedycias completed his bachelor's and master's degrees in Spanish, a master's degree in English, and a Ph.D. in comparative literature -- all at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
He has worked at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, Essex County College in Newark, N.J., and Federal University of Pernambuco in Recife, Brazil. His teaching career began at California State University at Sacramento. Sedycias has dual citizenship in Brazil and the U.S.
He's also lived in Arkansas before.
In his resume, amongst all the traditional list of work experiences and academic achievements, Sedycias briefly wrote in a list of educational attainment: "Attended middle and high school at Colegio Marista Secondary School, Recife, Brazil. Graduated from Eureka Springs High School. Eureka Springs, Arkansas."
Sedycias, a linguist with knowledge of seven languages, once wrote in a 2019 statement of leadership policy that he hopes to act as "a bridge or facilitator that helps to create synergy by bringing people together as they strive to achieve excellence as a group."
White, 49, a native of Stuttgart and a historian, is an associate dean in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in history at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway before finishing his Ph.D. in history at the University of Mississippi.
At UA, he directly oversees several academic areas, numerous interdisciplinary programs and six centers, including the Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History and the Blair Center for Southern Politics and Society. White previously served as chairman of the department of history and director of the African and African American Studies Program at UA.
He worked with Shields at UA until 2022, when Shields left as dean of the University of Arkansas Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences to become ASU chancellor.
White has written "The Rise to Respectability: Race, Religion, and The Church of God in Christ," and he is working on a new book, "Oscar De Priest, A Black Congressman in Jim Crow America," which is under an advance contract with Palgrave Macmillan to publish in June 2023.
"Before there is Barack Obama, there is De Priest," White said in a 2021 speech at Illinois State University. "He operates at a very sophisticated level in every sense, and he lays the foundation so that those who follow can be accepted as Black political leaders."
Sedycias is scheduled to visit the ASU campus in Jonesboro on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by Clarke on Feb. 28-March 1 and White on March 6-7. During their visits, each finalist will meet with the search committee, other on-campus groups and members of the community.
A public presentation by each candidate is scheduled on the second day of their visit from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. in the Reng Student Union Auditorium at ASU-Jonesboro. The campus and public can attend and ask questions. A community "meet-and-greet event" is also scheduled at the Cooper Alumni Center for each candidate.
The final schedules of the visits, along with provided curricula vitae of the finalists, is available at https://bit.ly/3I7Vf2x.
The next provost would replace Alan Utter, who stepped down as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs and research at the end of the fall 2022 semester. Utter, currently on sabbatical, had been in the position since 2019. He is preparing for a return to teaching.
It is not known what the provost's job will pay. According to ACT 105 of 2021, the maximum annual public salary of an executive vice chancellor at ASU is $223,009. However, Arkansas Code Annotated § 6-63-309 allows a college or university to exceed the maximum public salary "by no more than twenty-five percent (25%) for no more than ten percent (10%) of the positions authorized in its biennial operations appropriation" in an effort to recruit and retain "well-qualified academic personnel." Higher education institutions sometimes enhance public salaries with private funding.