Rodgers will move from Kansas State

After more than a year of searching, Oregon State University has a new dean for its College of Liberal Arts.

OSU announced Tuesday that Lawrence R. Rodgers, an associate dean at Kansas State University, was its new dean. He is expected to assume his new job Sept. 8.

Rodgers succeeds Larry Roper, who has held the position on an interim basis since May 2007. Roper will return to full-time duties as OSU's vice provost for student affairs.

According to an OSU press release, Rodgers has a track record of liberal arts advocacy, fundraising, and creating new learning opportunities for students. He has been associate dean of Kansas State's College of Arts and Sciences since 2002, and a member of its faculty since 1989. After earning his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he went to Kansas State as an assistant professor of English and was named head of the department in 1995, a position he held until becoming associate dean in 2002.

He has been a campus leader at Kansas State on many initiatives, including establishing a first-year experience program, creating a new university-wide strategic plan, revamping the honors program and chairing the international activity council.

"The depth of those experiences - both as an administrator and a campus leader - make Larry Rodgers ideally suited to lead the OSU College of Liberal Arts," said OSU President Ed Ray. "His vision of the importance of a strong liberal arts program at a Land Grant institution is consistent with our own at Oregon State, and he has the experience to help us realize that vision."

As dean of the OSU College of Liberal Arts, Rodgers will oversee an academic unit that has more than 200 faculty members in 13 departments. More than 3,000 students pursue one of the 19 majors offered by the college, which also has an international degree and certificate programs.

Rodgers' wife, Susan Jackson Rodgers, will join the OSU Department of English as an associate professor in the widely recognized Creative Writing Program. An accomplished author and educator, she has published an award-winning collection of stories, "The Trouble with You Is," as well as fiction in numerous distinguished literary journals, including the New England Review, Prairie Schooner and North American Review.

- OSU News Service