NEWS RELEASE

Contact: David West (west@nsula.edu )
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466

02/20/2004

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATCHITOCHES- On campus interviews have been scheduled for the two finalists for the position of provost and vice president for academic affairs at Northwestern State University.

According to Dr. Kathleen Byrd, chair of the search committee and director of the School of Social Sciences at NSU, Dr. Anthony Scheffler, acting provost and vice president for academic affairs at Northwestern, will be interviewed March 4-5. Dr. Thomas Dukes, dean of the School of Business at Christian Brothers University in Memphis, will be interviewed March 11-12. A third finalist, Dr. Finnie A. Murray, withdrew from consideration after accepting another position.

As part of the interview process, both candidates will meet with NSU President Dr. Randall J. Webb, members of the President's Cabinet and the university's Academic Council. Meetings with members of the search committee, students, faculty, staff and administrators are also scheduled. Both Dukes and Scheffler will tour NSU's Natchitoches campus and the College of Nursing in Shreveport.

Dukes has been dean of the School of Business at Christian Brothers University since 2000. From 1998 until 2000, he was dean of the Francis E. Girard School of Business and International Commerce at Merrimack College. Dukes spent eight years at Longwood College in Virginia as a professor in the School of Business and Economics. He was also director of the Longwood College Halifax-South Boston BSBA Outreach Program, chair of the Department of Management and Marketing and assistant to the Vice President for Academic Affairs during the spring 1997 semester.

Dukes has also been a faculty member at Georgia College, the University of Maine, James Madison University, the University of Central Arkansas, Louisiana Tech at Barksdale Air Force Base and Henderson State University. He has taught graduate courses in management and marketing and undergraduate classes in business, management, marketing and economics.

A graduate of Northeast Louisiana University in business administration, he received a Master's of Business Administration at Northeast Louisiana and a doctorate at Louisiana Tech.

Scheffler has been acting provost and vice president for academic affairs since July 2003. In 2002, he was appointed associate provost and dean of Graduate Studies, Research and Information Systems. Scheffler was appointed as dean of Graduate Studies, Research and Information Systems in 2000.

Scheffler joined Northwestern's faculty in 1992. He was director of the Intensive Summer Graduate Program and an assistant professor in the College of Education from 1992 until 1997. Scheffler was promoted to associate professor of education in 1997. At Northwestern, Scheffler has taught graduate and upper level courses in research, instructional design, evaluation and reporting and statistics.

In 1993, he was named assistant dean of Graduate Studies and Research. Scheffler was also director of Academic Computing and Distance Education in 1997-98, and coordinator of the educational technology doctoral program in 1995-96.

He has been on the faculty at the University of Alabama, the University of Southern Mississippi and William Carey College.

Scheffler received his bachelor's degree from Louisiana Tech University. He received a Master's of Education and did additional graduate work at the University of New Orleans. Scheffler earned a Specialist in Education and a doctorate at the University of Southern Mississippi.

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