The College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Dean Search Committee held an open forum for its third candidate for the inaugural dean position at Davidson Hall on Tuesday and will be moving forward with an open forum for the next potential candidate on March 27. 

The search committee interviewed several semi-finalists for the inaugural dean position, with each candidate holding an open forum from March 25 to April 8.

Central Connecticut State University intends to merge existing healthcare-related academic programs, develop new in-demand programs, and include experiential learning, cultural competency and healthcare advocacy for its new College of Health and Rehabilitation. 

“A huge piece of the new college is the opening of our community health education clinic,” Provost Kimberly Kostelis said. “This will allow students to be able to have experiential learning opportunities on campus, and build that confidence, with their skills, as well as knowing how to work interdisciplinary across our nurses could be working with social work students, which is typical in the hospital setting.”

The clinic provides free healthcare services and restructures its departments under a new dean.

Kostelis said that this change was initiated for several reasons. One of the main concerns was bringing nursing and social work programs under one roof to better serve students and partners in the healthcare field. 

“Even prospective students don’t often know that we have a nursing program or even a social work program,” Kostelis said. “Because it’s housed in our School of Education and Professional Studies, even though we’re in professional studies, a lot of times people just look at it as education.”

The School of Education and Professional Studies name will be shortened to the School of Education, removing nursing, social work, physical education, human performance programs, and similar interdisciplinary studies.

Alexandra Correia, the School of Education’s administrative assistant, said the school will be “returning to its roots” and focus strictly on education.

“We’ve already taken steps to begin to grow ourselves, if you will,” Correia said. “And begin to look to, you know, develop new programming and innovative programming to support the fields of education.”

Donna DeCarlo, assistant dean of the School of Education, said that they will also aim to inspire students to become educators due to a concerning shortage of educators in parts of Connecticut. According to the CT State Department of Education, there is a shortage of teachers in areas such as science, history, and mathematics statewide. 

DeCarlo said teachers today are experiencing significant burnout due to the pressure to perform more with limited resources, which correlates to the decline. 

“People have the ability to inspire, to change lives, to really be wonderful mentors and model behavior, you know, for our future,” DeCarlo said. “We want to inspire our students to want to go out there and to give back.”

Kostelis said the School of Education plans to strengthen collaborations with the State Department of Education and local school districts, concentrating on K–12 education, student preparation and community involvement. The dean will focus on education, teacher development and administration, with degrees ranging from early childhood to superintendent and EDD degrees, Kostelis said.

The School of Education launched a residency program with Waterbury public schools for paraprofessionals, who serve as valuable resources for teachers, DeCarlo said. This program allows them to work directly with the Department of Special Education and the dean’s office, enrolling in an educator preparation program.

Kostelis said there are no changes regarding staffing or the current curriculum requirements.

”I am excited about the possibility for our faculty, staff, and students, I think it’s going to be great,” Kostelis said. “You know, to have the new college as well as to move to our roots to have a school of education. I think it’s only going to better serve our students as well as Connecticut.”

The community clinic is located in the basement of Copernicus Hall, near Beecher Hall and Maria’s Place.