Jack Kay of Farmington Hills has been named interim dean of the College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts at Wayne State University, effective August 18.

Tilden Edelstein of Grosse Pointe Park, vice president for Academic Affairs, made the announcement and said Kay is a superb choice as interim dean for the college. "Jack Kay has established an excellent record of creative accomplishments and academic administration. The college is fortunate to have so resourceful and competent an interim dean."

Kay joined Wayne State in 1990 as chair of the department of communication, a post he held until this appointment.

"I will work hard to help advance the multiple missions of the College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts," Kay said. "The excellent work of our students and faculty already is noticed nationally and internationally. During the next year we will see to it that the campus community and the Detroit metropolitan area learn more about excellence in the arts at Wayne State."

Ed Pappas of Warren will be interim chairman of the communication department. Pappas is a professor of communication education and was chairman of the department for 17 years from 1973 to 1990.

Prior to his tenure at Wayne State, Kay was chair of the department of speech at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, where he also served as director of forensics.

An author of numerous articles and books on communication, rhetoric, argumentation and forensics, Kay also has served as editor of Speaker and Gavel, professional resources editor for National Forensic Journal and on the editorial boards of Argumentation and Advocacy, the Forensic Educator and Central States Communication Journal.

His research specialties include rhetoric and race, extremist groups and political debates. He has conducted numerous workshops on the language of oppression, communication and gender.

Kay has presented testimony on extremist groups to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission and the State of Nebraska Legislature's Judiciary Committee and has worked with law enforcement in his studies of various white supremacist and paramilitary groups. He also has been consultant to the Commission on Presidential Debates, the sponsor of the 1996 presidential debates.

Kay has held many positions in professional communication organizations, including president of Delta Sigma Rho-Tau Kappa Alpha, college advisor to the National Association of State High School Associations, president of Midwest Forensic Association, president of the Nebraska Speech Communication Association and president of the Michigan Association of Speech Communication.

Kay holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wayne State, a Master of Science degree in communication from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and a doctorate from Wayne State.