Michael Rutschky
Published: January 25, 2006
The faculty of the Art Department has unanimously decided upon a replacement for former department head, Allan Peterson. Krist Lein, who was the chair of the art department at Shelton State College in Tuscaloosa, Ala., will fill the position at PJC at the end of the spring semester.
“He’s truly interested, and wants to do well,” current temporary department head, Mark Francis, said, “He’s already showing us that it’s about the art program, it’s about the students. He’s well qualified and has years of experience in teaching and administration.”
Lein will be visiting the school frequently during the semester to get a feel for the department. The plan is to have Francis, a veteran of the department, stay on until the end of the semester to help facilitate a smooth transition for Lein, as well as the department itself.
“He wants to be involved in a lot of things this term so that he can become more acclimated with the position,” Francis said.
Although Lein has a background teaching sculpture, the courses he will be teaching in the summer and fall semesters have yet to be chosen. Francis has said, however, that Lein has worked in many different fields, and has lots of experience teaching different kinds of art.
Typically, a department head is required to teach a single course each term. However, former department head Allan Peterson had a unique arrangement in that in his last several years at the college he acted as the gallery director, rather than teaching a course.
Peterson, who had been with PJC for 31 years, was held in high regard by the other members of the faculty.
“The success that he’s going to be remembered, he was a great individual, but it was also that he created a stable process for running a department,” Spiros Zachos, a computer graphics teacher at PJC for 10 years, said.
Zachos believes that a solid replacement for Peterson “would have to learn a very complicated system.”
At the beginning of the semester, as a precautionary measure, one of the faculty members had to step up to temporarily fill the position. The reason Francis was chosen for the position was because the department needed to ensure that the person taking it would not leave any large void in the program.
Francis said that things have been going smoothly thus far, and expects the rest of his tenure as temporary department head to go just as well.
“As long as you have the support from the faculty, everything will go well, and everyone gives me lots of support, as I’m sure they’ll give the new department head,” Francis said.