Syracuse University named three final Hendricks Chapel dean candidates Monday and informed Hendricks staff of the announcement in an e-mail, said Barbara Fought, head of the university committee tasked with naming the new dean.

The three candidates are not affiliated with SU.

Within a month, the candidates, the Rev. Tiffany Steinwert, the Rev. Kristen Leslie and the Rev. Mark Edington, will each hold a public presentation and discussion. They will also meet with Chancellor Nancy Cantor, Vice President and Dean of Student Affairs Thomas Wolfe, the search committee, students, and Hendricks staff and chaplains.

After meeting the candidates, the campus community will be able to submit feedback to the committee, Fought said.

‘It’s really important to us on the committee that we get feedback on the candidates from the chapel staff, as well as the chaplains because they’re the people who are going to be working with them every day and helping the new dean succeed. So it’s certainly our intent to get lots of input from them, as well as the whole campus community,’ Fought said.

Interim Dean Kelly Sprinkle has filled the position since June 2008, when Wolfe was appointed the university’s interim senior vice president of student affairs. A nationwide search was planned after Wolfe was named senior vice president and dean of student affairs in October 2008.

Sprinkle, one of the search’s 70 applicants, was not one of the three finalists because the committee identified stronger candidates, Fought said.

Twelve candidates were each granted a one-hour phone interview with the committee, including the three finalists and Sprinkle.

The permanent dean is expected to be named by the beginning of spring semester. The committee will make an official suggestion, and Wolfe will make the final decision.

Leslie, an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church, will make the first campus visit Oct. 27 and 28. Leslie has worked at the Yale University Divinity School as an associate professor of pastoral care and counseling and is a 12-year faculty member. Leslie holds a master’s degree and a doctorate in pastoral care and counseling from the Claremont (Calif.) School of Theology. Her presentation will be held in the Noble Room of Hendricks Chapel Wednesday at 10:45 a.m.

The second candidate, Steinwert, also an ordained pastor in the United Methodist Church, will visit campus Nov. 9 and 10. Steinwert is currently a senior pastor of Cambridge Welcoming Ministries, and holds degrees from Williams (Mass.) College and Boston University.

The final candidate to visit campus, Edington, is the Protestant chaplain at Wellesley (Mass.) College and an affiliated minister in Harvard University’s Memorial Church. He will come to SU a week after Steinwert. Edington was formerly senior administrator at Harvard Divinity School and served as a chaplain at Harvard.

Because SU was established under Methodist principles, Hendricks deans were required to be Methodist pastors until 1980.

T.E. Koshy, Hendricks’ Evangelical chaplain for 37 years, said he was surprised that two of the candidates are involved in United Methodist ministry now that the requirement no longer exists.

The deans that led the chapel since 1980, Wolfe and Richard Phillips, were also Methodist pastors.

The dean search committee did not take church affiliation into consideration, Fought said.

‘A lot of United Methodists know that the school has United Methodists roots, so they may have been more likely to apply,’ she said.

‘We’ve been saying to people that persons of any faith and tradition are welcome to apply, and we did have people of many faith traditions,’ Fought said.

bmdavies@syr.edu

Published on October 20, 2009 at 12:00 pm