Saint Louis University didn’t have to look very far in its search for a new permanent dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

After considering applicants from around the country and inviting top candidates to visit campus earlier this semester, SLU announced last Friday that Donald Brennan, Ph.D., interim dean since the summer of 2006, will continue to head the University’s largest academic division. Brennan will also keep his post as dean of the Graduate School.

Brennan said that he had not originally been interested in serving as permanent dean when he agreed to take the interim spot nearly two years ago.

A search committee headed by John Cook School of Business Dean Ellen Harshman, Ph.D., began looking for a new permanent dean late last year; three of their favorites for the job came to SLU in February to get to know faculty and students.

Brennan became a late applicant for the permanent position, however, when the committee had difficulty finding a satisfactory candidate from outside the University.

“During the national search for this position, it became clear that Don was the person most qualified to take the College of Arts and Sciences to the next level,” said Provost Joe Weixlmann, Ph.D., who was ultimately responsible for selecting a permanent dean.

John Carroll, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences and the lone student member of the Dean Search Committee, said that he thought Brennan was a good choice.

“A benefit of selecting Brennan as dean is that he’s been around SLU forever. Everyone on campus knows his modus operandi and general ability . My experience [is] that Dean Brennan is very open to student ideas and is very approachable and straightforward,” Carroll said.

Brennan will simultaneously lead the College of Arts and Sciences and remain dean of the Graduate School, a position he has held for almost two decades.

Brennan said that he will hire senior associate deans for both schools, to help ease the burden of running two academic divisions of the University.

In addition, the offices of the College of Arts and Sciences will move from their current location in Fusz Hall to Verhaegen Hall, where the Graduate School is headquartered.

As dean, Brennan said that he hopes to “return the College to prominence in the University.”

He said that he will address challenges facing the College; his major goals include improving academic advising and increasing student retention rates.

“I plan to make the College of Arts and Sciences the best it can be, so it can be a prime part of helping [University President Lawrence] Biondi achieve his vision of making SLU the finest Catholic university in the country,” Brennan said.

Other goals that Brennan has for the College of Arts and Sciences include creating a biochemistry major-which he said could be implemented in the near future-and hiring a full-time assistant director for the International Studies Program.

Brennan has a long history at SLU as a student, professor and administrator.

Trained in communication sciences and disorders, Brennan graduated from the College of Arts and Sciences in 1967; he earned his master’s degree here three years later.

Brennan returned to SLU as a faculty member in 1975 and, after rising through the ranks of the University’s academic administration, was tapped to lead the Graduate School in 1988. His nearly 20-year tenure there is the longest in University history.