The dean search committee of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications is hosting two public forums to help its search for the school’s next permanent leader.

SU created the search committee in July, three months after Dean Lorraine Branham died of cancer. Amy Falkner, an associate professor at Newhouse, was appointed interim Newhouse dean in April.

Students, staff and faculty are invited to ask questions and offer input to assist the search for a new permanent dean, according to a Thursday email from the Office of the Provost to Newhouse faculty. The student body has not received the email, which was obtained by The Daily Orange.

The search committee’s first task is to form a description of the dean’s position, allowing the position’s opening to be known to those qualified to apply. Forum attendees are welcomed to help “set the direction of the search,” according to the email.

Those unable to attend the forums can email their input to John Wildhack and Craig Boise, the co-chairs of the search committee. Two Newhouse students, senior magazine major Jonathan Chau and doctoral student Laura Canuelas-Torres, sit on the committee.

The forums are both held in Newhouse’s Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium on Tuesday, Sept. 3. The first will take place from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. and the second from 5:15 to 6:30 p.m.