By KATIE LACKEY
Student Writer
Dean of Arts and Sciences is not a job title Dr. James Bell originally set out for, but one he has slowly grown into.
Bell began his employment at Northwestern Oklahoma State University in the fall of 2010 as the chairman of the department of English, Foreign Language and Humanities, as well as a professor of English and stayed through the spring of 2013. As a department chairman, Bell taught a few classes: American literature, composition and film class, which was one of his favorite to teach.
It was after leaving Northwestern in the spring of 2013 that Bell chose to branch away from the teaching route. He worked as an educational consultant for a large-scale assessment company in Minnesota. He remained a resident of Alva during this time by working out of a home office. He said he enjoyed working from home, but got tired of not being around people.
When the dean position opened up, Bell viewed it as an opportunity to get back on the campus he loved and working with people he liked. It was a campus that felt like home. Bell explained how his past job experiences of being a department chairman at Northwestern has helped him to be a more effective dean. He said: “ the chairman position at Northwestern is a demanding job. It forced me to become very organized whether it is working on schedules, budgets or just fitting in other obligations like committee work and chairman and department meetings. All those things are part of being a chairman. In some ways, I can take those skills and translate them into this job. I may be looking at a broader view, but I am still looking at many of the same pieces of the puzzle that I was looking at as a chair.”
Bell mentioned his time spent as a professor has also prepared him for the role of dean. “Working with faculty members and students are not the same. They are doing different things,” Bell said. “While you may not necessarily be educating a group of faculty members there is still a lot of collaboration and cooperation. A lot of the skills you have to have to be a professor you take with you into the dean’s job as well.”
Bell said one of his goals as dean is to simply get more information out about the exciting things that are going on in the school. “ People don’t go into education unless they are curious.” He said, “Most professors would look forward to the chance to get together with other professors who are experts. So one other goal is to increase that chance to socialize within the school. We are all busy, but that buying some chances to get together with no particular goal in mind other than to just enjoy one another’s company is a goal of mine.”
Angela Case, the academic projects assistant and media specialist, who works with Bell, describes the experience as a lot of fun. She said it is a learning process for the both of them since this is only her third year in her role as academic projects assistant and media specialist. Case said, “He genuinely cares about the people who walk in here. People come in with problems or just to say hi, he cares about people and doesn’t mind having some fun along the way.”
Case recalled a morning when she decided to bring in doughnuts to the office. She pulled a few out of the box and set them on Bell’s desk then went to her desk to begin her day. It wasn’t but a few minutes later that Bell comes strolling into the office, also carrying a box of doughnuts and making a remark about how it’s the type of morning that calls for doughnuts, just to walk in his office and find she already had doughnuts on his desk. He roared with laughter. Case said, “It is simple moments like this one that create the fun and social work environment he strives for.”
Bell said he loved teaching and it is what he always envisioned himself doing for the long haul, but the more time he spends on the administration end of things, he has grown to like that as well.