Three chair departments will be replaced for the next academic year.

“(It’s) time to move on and see what else I want to do,” said Leonard Gambrell, political science chair and sociology interim chair. He is retiring at the end of June.

Gambrell taught at Eau Claire for 35 years and spent the last 10 years as the political science chair and the last two as the interim chair of sociology. He said his favorite memory from teaching is “being able to watch (the department) flourish.”

Rodd Freitag, currently assistant professor of political science, will replace Gambrell as the political science chair. Donald Neilsen, a professor from the State University of New York in Oneonta, is the new sociology chair.

John Pladziewicz of the chemistry department is also leaving his position. Cheryl Muller, associate professor of chemistry, has been selected as the new chemistry department chair after teaching here for 10 years.

Muller officially takes over the chemistry department after spring graduation ceremonies in May.

“I’m excited about the opportunities we’ll have,” Muller said on becoming the chair.

She said she feels she will make a good chair because she is interested in how students make decisions and adapt to college life.

She will continue to teach, but it will be about half of what she teaches now, Muller said.

“I would like to have more students learn about a chemistry major, chemistry minor and biochemistry/molecular biology,” she said, adding that often first-year chemistry courses scare students off but she said there are good jobs in these fields.

Muller said her biggest challenge as chair will be “to try and keep a big picture.”

It’s important to recognize what’s best for students and the enthusiasm of the faculty, Muller said.

When looking for a new department chair, there are qualifications the candidate must meet, said Janice Morse, administrative officer of academic affairs. The chair must lead the department and develop evaluative curricula. He or she also evaluates the performance and contribution of each faculty member, oversees the department budget, assigns academic advisors to students, administers regulation in regards to advising and prepares class schedules (who teaches what courses and when they are offered). In addition, the chair prepares reports for the department (administrative responsibilities) and is the department liaison to administration, Morse said.

The search for a new department chair can be internal or national, Morse said. The external search can take anywhere from six to seven months. Because of national advertising, more time is put into interviewing the increased number of applicants, she said. Sometimes a department may decide to hire a new faculty member to replace the teaching position, Morse said. It depends on how the department divides up the work-load, she said, adding that chairs are swapping positions with another faculty position. Beside these three departments that have officially selected new chairs, three other departments are in the process of finding a new chair, Morse said. Kinesiology and Athletics, Special Education and Communication and Journalism are currently undergoing with the search.