Arkansas State University’s search for new provost down to three

Arkansas State University’s search for a new chancellor of academic affairs and provost is now down to the final three candidates. Mark Clarke, Dr. João Sedycias and Dr. Calvin White have been invited to visit the Jonesboro campus by Chancellor Dr. Todd Shields in the coming weeks.

Sedycias’s visit will start on Tuesday (Feb. 21), and Clarke’s is slated to begin on Feb. 28. White will be on campus March 8. Each finalist will visit A-State to 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. The campus and public are invited to attend and may ask questions. A community meet and greet is also scheduled at the Cooper Alumni Center for each candidate.

Clarke is currently the associate provost for faculty development and faculty affairs at the University of Houston (UH). He completed undergraduate studies in biological sciences at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), followed by a graduate study at Christie Hospital and Holt Radium Institute in Manchester. He finished his degree in pharmacology and his doctorate in cell biology and microchemistry, also from MMU. He has held other administration positions at UH, including associate vice chancellor for technology transfer.

Sedycias is currently dean of the William J. Maxwell College of Arts and Sciences at New Jersey City University (NJCU). He completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Spanish at the State University of New York at Buffalo, then added a master’s degree in English from SUNY-Buffalo before finishing his doctorate in comparative literature, also at SUNY-Buffalo. He was also a department chair at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, Essex County College in Newark, N.J., and Federal University of Pernambuco in Recife, Brazil. He began his teaching career at California State University at Sacramento.

White is currently an associate dean at the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history at the University of Central Arkansas before finishing his doctorate in history at the University of Mississippi. 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. He previously served as chair of the department of history and the director of the African and African American Studies Program.