According to a campus-wide email, Ruth Weissman will be stepping down as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs.

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Ruth Weissman will be stepping down as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs this summer, according to a campus-wide email sent by President Michael Roth on Monday, April 6.

“Her efforts over the past two years in support of the faculty, in overseeing the curriculum, and in exercising administrative leadership have been extraordinary,” Roth wrote. “Wesleyan has been fortunate indeed to have had her in this role.”

In her current position as Provost and Vice President for Academic, Weissman is responsible for overseeing the University curriculum and new curricular initiatives; faculty hiring and promotion; support for faculty research and teaching; and the administration of all academic departments, interdisciplinary and certificate programs, centers, and colleges, the athletics department, the library, the Office of the Registrar, and the Office of Institutional Research.

“It has been a great opportunity and pleasure to lead Academic Affairs,” Weissman wrote in an email to The Argus. “During my short term as Vice-President for Academic Affairs and Provost, a great deal of things were accomplished that will contribute to enhancing Wesleyan students’ education…. I was privileged to work with three extraordinarily effective academic deans, Professors Andrew Curran (Arts & Humanities), Joyce Jacobsen (Social Sciences), and Ishita Mukerji (Sciences and Mathematics) who were instrumental to the success of the work of my office.”

Weissman is also a professor of psychology, Walter A. Crowell University Professor of the Social Sciences, and holds a doctoral degree in clinical psychology from the University of South Carolina. Her research endeavors to understand the causes and effects of eating and weight disorders. She has published over 200 peer-received articles and book chapters, received funding from the National Institutes of Health, and is currently editor-in chief of the International Journal of Eating Disorders.

As for her future plans, Ruth hopes to write a book about positive psychology and then return to the University.

“She will be greatly missed in North and South College, but our students will be thrilled when their Walter A. Crowell University Professor of the Social Sciences is back in the classroom,” Roth wrote.

There will be a gathering to celebrate Ruth’s accomplishments. Details are to come.

As for replacements, Dean of the Social Sciences and Director of Global Initiatives Joyce Jacobsen has accepted a one-year appointment as Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs.

“Joyce, Andrews Professor of Economics, is a renowned expert in the subject of economics and gender, and in her work as Dean she has proved herself a talented and accomplished administrator,” Roth wrote. “I look forward to working more closely with her. After consultation with Joyce and the faculty, I will have more to say in the fall about longer-term plans for Academic Affairs.”