Harold Ornes, the dean of the college of sciences, will be retiring at the end of the month.

His retirement will take place Oct. 31.

Blair Lord, the vice president of academic affairs, was notified of Ornes’ retirement when Ornes sent him a letter.

Before Lord got the letter, he had no idea Ornes was retiring.

“Eastern’s College of Sciences needs some leadership, so I am going to have to make very rapid accommodations and identifications to ensure this,” Lord said. “I can assure you I am working on it at the moment.”

Lord said he cannot do a national search with such a limited time span, so it will have to be an interim leadership.

“I am working diligently on that right now, and I hope to have something I can announce before the 31st,” Lord said.

While his retirement notice came shorter than most, Ornes is not the only dean retiring.

Glenn Hild, interim dean of the college of arts and humanities, is also retiring at the end of May.

“He has said he cannot be talked out of retirement,” Lord said.

Lord had put together a search committee last year for a new dean, but President David Glassman has asked him to hold off on the process because of budget issues.

“Eastern will have to resolve that matter between now and the month of May,” Lord said.

Although the process for looking for a new dean of the college of arts and humanities is on hold, Lord said if they go forward with a national search he has the structure in place.

“Everything’s ready to run (the search),” Lord said. “If we don’t do that we would do another internal interim search.”

The president has not yet told Lord which path he wants to take.

Ornes has no comment on his retirement other than to say it was a personal and professional decision.

Cassie Buchman can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]