UC Irvine Appoints Wisconsin Educator as Dean of Fine Arts

UC Irvine’s yearlong search for a new dean of fine arts ended Friday with the appointment of University of Wisconsin administrator Robert Hickok to the position.

Hickok, 61, dean of the School of Fine Arts at the Milwaukee campus of the University of Wisconsin, will take over the post in December if his appointment is approved, UCI spokeswoman Colleen Bentley-Adler said.

The University of California Board of Regents is expected to consider his appointment at its September meeting. Hickok’s proposed salary will be about $100,000, Bentley-Adler said.

Hickok will replace Robert Garfias, who resigned the post in July, 1987, to return to teaching and research. Since then, the position has been filled by acting dean Bernard Gilmore, an associate professor of music.

Hickok, a graduate of Yale, did not apply for the position, according to Cameron Harvey, the UCI drama professor who chaired the search committee.

He was sought for the job, Harvey said, because of his history of actively involving his staff in the decision-making process.

“He’s a collaborative person,” Harvey said. “He works with people, finds out their point of view and gives it administrative direction.”

Hickok, who also will be a professor of music at UCI, has a longstanding interest in conducting choral groups.

The Texas native has been dean of the School of Fine Arts at the Milwaukee campus since 1985. For eight years before that, he was dean of the School of Music and director of the international music program at North Carolina School of the Arts.

During the mid-1970s, he was dean of the School of Performing Arts at Brooklyn College of City University of New York.

Hickok said he had planned to retire from his present job in Milwaukee but decided to take the Orange County position because of UCI’s persistence and the potential of the School of Fine Arts.

“I think (UCI) has a very promising School of Fine Arts,” he said. “The commitment of the university to the development of the school is very strong.”

Former co-workers of Hickok praised his abilities as a conductor, and one described him as a “strong administrator.”

Sherwood Shaffer, a composer at the North Carolina School of the Arts, said that when Hickok was charged with the job of revising the school’s curriculum during his term as dean, he made sure the entire staff was involved.

“He didn’t come in and wipe the boards clean and use (only) his ideas,” Shaffer said. “We did a lot of teamwork with him, with input from everyone putting it together.”

Hickok, who said he probably will move with his wife, Roanne, into the University Hills area, indicated that he will continue the administrative style that has served him in the past.

“I insist upon being an accessible administrator,” he said. “That is important. You cannot sit behind a desk and talk to a couple of department chairmen and staff people. You need to know the faculty and the students. You need to know the community.”