Interim Dean of the College Peter Patton announced last week that the University has narrowed the selection of the Dean of the College to two finalists: Billy Weitzer, Interim Dean of Student Academic Resources at Wesleyan, and Maria A. Cruz-Saco, Interim Dean of the College at Connecticut College. Weitzer will hold an open session with students at noon on Wednesday in Shanklin 107. Cruz-Saco will be available at noon on Monday, also in Shanklin 107. In his e-mail, Patton said that students should email their input on the selection to President Bennet.
Billy Weitzer
Billy Weitzer received his undergraduate degree from the Residential College at the University of Michigan and earned a Ph.D. in Environmental Psychology at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Billy has worked in academic affairs at Wesleyan since 1991 where he currently serves as Senior Associate Provost and Dean of Continuing Studies. Within Academic Affairs, he is responsible for budget matters, administrative personnel matters, and facilities issues, and supervises Institutional Research, Graduate Student Services and the Registrar’s Office. He serves on the facilities Master Plan Executive Committee, led the project to build the addition to the Freeman Athletic Center, and initiated a project renovating all of Wesleyan’s classrooms. As Dean of Continuing Studies, he is coordinating and expanding Wesleyan’s educational activities.
For the past year at Wesleyan, Billy has served as Interim Dean of Student Academic Resources. His responsibilities include supervising the Class Deans and coordinating student academic resources within the Dean’s organization (e.g., tutoring services, services for students with learning disabilities, Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program) and outside of the Dean’s Office (e.g., Writing Workshop, Math Workshop, Career Resource Center).
Maria A. Cruz-Saco
Maria A. Cruz-Saco is the Interim Dean of the College and Professor of Economics at Connecticut College. She has held several faculty leadership positions including chair of the Economics department, chair of the Priorities, Planning and Budget Committee, member of the Grievances Committee, associated faculty with the Toor Cummings Center for International Studies and the Liberal Arts and member of the steering faculty committee of the Holleran Center for Community Action and Public Policy. In 2002-03, she chaired the Presidential Commission on a Pluralistic Community charged with delineating the College’s institutional vision for a multicultural experience and inclusive excellence.
During her tenure as Interim Dean of the College she led an internal self-study of the division in comparative perspective, redrafted the vision, mission and goals of the division and designed an action plan for 2004-2006. During her time there, the
Dean of the College division produced a student quality of life report, concluded the multicultural center self-assessment, introduced reforms in the multicultural center to better serve the diverse student population, secured an increase in the operational budget for pluralistic initiatives, and supported the creation of a peer mentoring pilot.
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