Graduate School dean looks toward retirement

by Mark McGowan

When Jerrold Zar began work on a master's degree in biology at the University of Illinois, he soon realized how well NIU had prepared him for graduate school. Zar, who earned his bachelor's degree at NIU in 1962, completed his master's, Ph.D. and post-doctoral studies in Champaign at the institution highly regarded for its biological research.

Jerrold Zar

When he was recruited to return to NIU as a faculty member, the decision was easy.

"I had a very good experience here as an undergraduate," Zar said. "I thought I'd come here for a couple of years to get started in my professorial life. I found it a great place to have a teaching and research career."

Thirty-four years later—half of those spent as dean of The Graduate School—Zar is planning to retire this summer. A reception in his honor takes place from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 17, in the Regency Room of the Holmes Student Center.

"I'm happy to have been here 34 years. It's been great. I've done a lot, and there's a lot more that could've been done," Zar said. "I thought seriously of retiring last year…but decided to stay one more year to overlap with the new provost."

Zar, who also is vice provost for graduate studies and research, spent his initial years here teaching biology and conducting research into physiological adaptations of animals to their environment and statistical analysis of biological data.

In 1974, Prentice Hall published his book, "Biostatistical Analysis." A fourth edition of the book was published in 1999, and he has a publisher's contract to write the fifth edition.

Named chair of the Department of Biological Sciences in 1978, he continued to teach and wrote the last half-dozen of 13 proposals for a Ph.D. program until it finally was approved. In the meantime, faculty in the department stepped up research and achieved a strong balance between teaching and scholarship.

"The maturation of that department reflects the maturation of the university," Zar said. "It has been exciting to be part of that."

Zar became acting dean of the Graduate School in 1984 and earned the job permanently after a national search. He works closely with the provost's office and with more than 40 department chairs and deans, and serves on 20 committees, about half of which he chairs.

"One of the exciting things for me, which you don't get as a department chair, is to see the tremendous variety of research and teaching going on at NIU. We're advancing and applying knowledge in many fields," he said.

"The faculty and staff are capable of more than we can support financially, so external sources of funding have to be sought. Our level of external funding has gone up every year as far back as anyone can remember, even in bad economic times and with intense competition."

Graduate schools currently enjoy high demand—typical in bad economic times—along with a mission to share the larger knowledge base through advanced training. Meanwhile, dollars are limited.

"There will always be a place for what we're doing," Zar said. "We just have to find a way to deliver it."

He is proud of his success with the biological sciences Ph.D. (to which he credits the faculty) and his accomplishments as vice provost and dean in three areas:

• Working with departments to develop new graduate programs.
• Assisting departments and faculty in pursuing research and artistry.
• Recruitment of minority graduate students. For example, Zar is involved with two statewide fellowship programs that encourage minority students to become university faculty.