Kelly Sprinkle, interim dean of Hendricks Chapel, is no longer a candidate to become permanent dean, he said.

Barbara Fought, chair of the committee tasked with finding a permanent dean, did not give an exact reason why the committee eliminated Sprinkle from consideration.

‘Our decisions were very difficult because we had a strong pool of candidates,’ Fought said.

Bob Pickett, a member of the committee, said that the number of applicants this year made the search more competitive compared to the previous Hendricks dean search in 1997.

Sprinkle has the option of returning to the Protestant chaplain position but said he is unsure of his future plans.

‘While I am disappointed that I am not a viable candidate, my commitment to religious life and diversity remains steadfast,’ Sprinkle said in an e-mail obtained by The Daily Orange sent to Hendricks Chapel staff last week. ‘And my support and affection for each of you remains as strong as ever.’

The committee began working in June to find a permanent dean and have identified three final candidates for the position. The committee hopes to inform Hendricks staff and faculty who the three candidates are this week, Fought said.

Thomas Wolfe, vice president and dean of student affairs, will make the final decision on the next dean. The committee hopes to name the permanent director by the start of spring semester, Fought said.

The committee conducted hour-long interviews with 12 finalists, including Sprinkle. Fought declined to comment on who any of the remaining candidates are in the search.

‘Kelly’s done a really great job this year,’ Fought said, ‘and it’s been difficult since he’s been interim dean with a number of (SU-related) deaths, and the committee certainly respects him and his work and appreciates his work. ‘

Following what many called a smooth year despite various challenges, Hendricks staff and chaplains said they were surprised and dismayed that Sprinkle was not one of the final candidates and the fact that the committee did not seek their input.

‘I think everybody who knows Kelly has been very happy with the way things have been. I haven’t talked to anyone that wasn’t disappointed,’ said the Rev. Tomi Jacobs, who became the interim Protestant chaplain after Sprinkle left the position in June 2008 to be Hendricks dean.

After a number of student deaths, budget cuts, staff transitions and program changes, Hendricks chaplains and staff members said Sprinkle endured the challenges well.

Sprinkle made several trips, including visits to SU Abroad centers, to visit families and friends of students who died last year and worked with the chaplains to organize support groups in light of the multiple deaths, said The Rev. Michael McQuitty, the campus Baptist chaplain.

Several chaplains were concerned because they felt things worked well under Sprinkle, Jacobs said.

‘He certainly knows the work, and he has the relationships with the people that are already here,’ McQuitty said. ‘And that’s something that takes a while to get, and he already has that in place, and so I was very surprised that he was not a finalist.’

McQuitty, the Baptist chaplain, expressed concern that the dean search committee did not actively seek out Hendricks staff to comment on the dean selections.

‘With Kelly, they had the unique opportunity to investigate how the chaplains, religious workers, chapel staff feel about him and what we think about him,’ he said. ‘It would have been a very easy thing to do to call and do a random sampling, ask for some e-mails. I’m just surprised that me and the people that I’ve talked to – none of us were contacted about what we thought about Kelly.’

McQuitty said Sprinkle helped to maintain and improve existing programs at Hendricks such as the chapel’s Interfaith Student Council, a group that’s struggled to develop for the 12 years McQuitty has been a chaplain at Hendricks.

Jacobs commended Sprinkle’s leadership and the unity he maintained among Hendricks chaplains maintained during his interim deanship.

‘It’s really easy for us to have differences. It’s really easy for (the chaplains) to – if we don’t have strong leadership – to not have tolerance for each other and not respect each other,’ she said.

bmdavies@syr.edu

Published on October 18, 2009 at 12:00 pm