The English department and history department have conducted similar searches within the last two years, both with great success. The dean was pretty adamant about having an open search. It worked out, because we got people who are going to bring new strengths as well as overlap with existing strengths. With some bridge money from CLA in anticipation of future retirements, the department was able to hire the two, senior faculty Robin Stryker and Scott Eliason from the University of Iowa, as well as four junior faculty. It's a huge investment of faculty time.
People are excited, relieved, happy.
With 17 people, there were so many talks for people to go to. I was so pleased that the graduate students still turned up. They were worn out. For Stryker and Eliason, hearing about the junior faculty being hired helped sell them on Minnesota, Stryker says. The choices about who was being hired at the junior level were part of what made us believe Minnesota would be a great place for us.