Two accomplished academic deans are joining the top echelon of the American University of Nigeria, Yola, as part of the re-strategizing by the President, Dr. Margee Ensign, to give the University a world-class teaching faculty, according to a statement issued yesterday by the AUN spokesman, Mr Abba Tahir.

Also coming on board are 17 seasoned faculty to strengthen the University’s programs and curriculum ahead of the e-book revolution kicking off in the forthcoming fall semester, Mr Tahir, Asst. VP for PR & communications, revealed in the statement. He indicated that AUN is firming up its carrying capacity to ensure that resources are not stretched in the event of an upsurge of intake in the coming semester.
Dr Craig Pearce will be joining AUN as the Dean of the School of Business & Entrepreneurship. Dr. Cortlandt Smith, Professor Emeritus and founding Dean of the School of International Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, in the United States will come in as Interim Dean of the School of Arts & Sciences. He was formerly the Director of International Programs in California.

Dr Pearce, for many years a student and colleague of the globally distinguished authority on management, Peter Drucker, at present heads the University of Nebraska’s Institute for Innovative Leadership. He also holds the prestigious Donald Clifton Chair in Leadership at Nebraska.

The new faculty hires, all interviewed personally by President Ensign at AUN’s partner institution, the American University in Washington, DC, will be teaching across the university, strengthening all the three schools. They will teach English, Writing, Economics, Business, Political Science, and Information Technology.
“All the changes in faculty were made with full consultation with the current Deans as well as with AUN’s Board of Trustees. All of us are excited about the commitment to teaching, to scholarship, and to the future of AUN and Nigeria that these men and women will bring to us,” the President said.
The statement also said six teaching faculty contracts were not renewed and the persons have to go, as “all contracts at AUN are for limited terms and these six had expired in the normal course of events--and five others were made redundant.”