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Cagle Brings Professional, Personal Qualities of Transformational Leadership to College of Arts, Sciences and Education

PhotoRandy Cagle will begin service as Ferris State University’s dean of the College of Arts, Sciences and Education on Monday, July 19. Cagle comes to Ferris from Minnesota State University, Moorhead, where he had been Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and Honors Program director.

Randy Cagle, a higher education leader with strong professional and personal leadership achievements, will begin as dean of Ferris State University’s College of Arts, Sciences and Education on Monday, July 19.

Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Bobby Fleischman expressed pleasure in announcing the Cagle appointment. Most recently, Cagle was dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and Honors Program director at Minnesota State University, Moorhead.

“Randy’s experience and success working collaboratively with faculty and community partners to advance cross-college, interdisciplinary initiatives along with his knowledge and experience engaging post-traditional and graduate learners and international partners will help advantage the entire university community,” Fleischman said.

At Minnesota State Moorhead, Cagle’s accomplishments include:

  • developing recruiting and curricular pathways for transfer students
  • creating new interdisciplinary courses for online delivery
  • spearheading efforts to create the Center for Geospatial Studies
  • integration of the university’s American Bar Association-approved paralegal program into the newly organized Department of Economic, Law and Politics
  • support for college programs including American Multicultural Studies, Economics, English Literature, English Writing, Integrated English in Publishing, Master of Fine Arts and Creative Writing, History, Spanish, East Asian Studies, Philosophy, Humanities, Science, International Studies, Sociology, Criminal Justice, Gerontology, and Women’s and Gender Studies
  • formulating MSUM’s student and faculty exchange program with the University of Agder in Norway, and
    leading the college’s educational program through successful Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) reaccreditation
  • partnering with faculty, Cagle helped create an 18-credit, online program for high school teachers to assure concurrent enrollment instructors met or exceeded the highly qualified credentialing standards set by the Higher Learning Commission.

Cagle understands the transformative possibilities post-secondary education provides, as he is a first-generation college student.

“My mother was a school bus driver, and my father was a painter,” Cagle said. “Most people expected I would continue in the ‘family business’ someday, as a bus driver or a general laborer. It was because of my parents’ encouragement and the investment of outstanding educators that I considered college and the professional opportunities this level of education unlocked for me.”

Cagle holds a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and English from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, a master’s degree in Philosophy from the University of South Carolina, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Memphis.