In the past two years, six of UK’s college deans have resigned from their positions. That number could breed indifference among some since UK has over 18 colleges within the university. But when the roll call of the colleges without deans is shown, things end up looking a lot worse than before. Five colleges are still without deans, according to a Kernel article on Monday.

Those colleges include the Arts and Sciences, UK’s largest college, Communications and Information Studies, Education, Law and Social Work. Those colleges are some of UK’s largest and most prominent, begging the question: How could UK let this happen?

When David Mahoney resigned from the College of Design, UK’s administration acted quickly by hiring Michael Speaks in the spring. But what about the other five colleges, who are still searching for replacements? UK needs to use the same quick and efficient hiring process that it used for the College of Design and implement that into the five remaining dean positions.

In Monday’s Kernel article, Provost Kumble Subbaswamy called this process normal. The provost said the normal service time for a college dean is six and half years. All of the former deans had served between five and 13 years, many serving closer to 13 than five.

While four of the deans are returning to faculty positions, the timing of all this is awful. With the semester still in its beginning stages and some of the largest colleges without deans, they cannot be expected to grow or continue to progress toward UK’s top-20 goal. Instead of strong leadership that can help these colleges attain top-20 status in their fields, they are wasting valuable time searching for a possible replacement.

The blame can’t land on any of the six deans who have resigned. Four of the former deans are returning to UK’s faculty and, therefore, are still contributing to their respective colleges. That’s admirable, including Kay Hoffman, who offered to remain as dean of the College of Social Work until her replacement is found. But how effective will she be in this role now that everyone knows her intentions? Based on Hoffman’s comments in Monday’s Kernel, she likely already has one foot out the door.

UK should expedite the process of finding and hiring to fill the remaining vacancies. The College of Social Work had its second candidate participate in an open forum yesterday. What about the rest? These remaining colleges should have deans in place sooner rather than later before any progress made is lost. UK’s administration should push their respective colleges toward decisions, or at least provide some assistance.

Otherwise, UK will be closer to being top-20 in employee turnover rather than education.