Dan Rodas, the first of four final candidates for the Treasurer position, visited campus last Friday. He spent much of his time with the members of the Treasurer Search Committee, but was also available to answer questions from the general College community on Friday afternoon. A group of about 20 professors and College staff attended the open meeting.

Professor of Chemistry Mark Marshall, co-chair of the search committee, introduced Rodas. Rodas then answered questions about his background and qualifications.

"I have an unusual background with business and education. Most people applying for this position don't have such a broad background," Rodas said when questioned about what unique qualities he would bring to the position. He currently serves as the Assistant Vice President for Administration at Duke University, in addition to teaching courses at Duke and North Carolina State University.

He received a B.A. in American Studies from Williams College, an Ed.M. in administration, planning and social policy from Harvard University and an M.B.A. and a Ph.D. in higher education from Stanford University.

Shannon Gurek, comptroller of the College, asked Rodas about his interest in working at Amherst. "The resources and immense wealth make Amherst very attractive. Also, my responsibilities now are very comprehensive and this role is also comprehensive," said Rodas.

Phil Fitz, director of information technology, asked how the challenges of Duke would be different or similar to those at Amherst. "Duke has a much larger scale and a different mission, which includes education, research and health care. Amherst has a more uniform mission," said Rodas. "In this environment, I could spend more time understanding your issues and thinking of creative ways to address the issues."

"I think preserving the strength of Amherst will be a challenge in the coming years," Rodas said, in response to a question about the challenges of being Treasurer at Amherst. "Another challenge will be figuring out how to become more inclusive as we become more diverse."

Rodas was also questioned about how he would take advantage of the five college consortium. "Right now, we take advantage of centralized services at Duke and I know you do that here. An advantage of this is that there are redundancies that can be eliminated," he said. "The downside is that it requires a great deal of organization and some overhead. There is also sometimes a loss of autonomy and identity."

Gurek and other members of the audience questioned Rodas about his problem-solving abilities and management style. "I have a very open, very collegial style. I like to gather a group of people with diverse opinions and absorb what I hear," he said.