Since the 2003 resignation of former Dean of the College Freddye Hill, the dean’s office has been significantly reorganized to be more efficient.
A new Dean of the College is expected to be chosen by the beginning of April.
The Administration has focused the responsibilities of a new dean to three main areas: academic support services for students, student affairs and student activities.
The new dean will be expected to supervise the Dean of Student Academic Resources, the Dean of Student Services, University Center Director, and Dean of Campus Programs.
“It’s a job that is very much in the middle of several different constituencies,” said Peter Patton, Interim Dean of the College. “The Dean of the College has to broker the relationship between students, faculty, and staff—and today more than ever, parents.
”We need to be looking at what models are working at other institutions.“
According to Patton, the University has spent the last year and four months examining models of college deans at other institutions. One model that the University at one time examined was the dean’s office at Williams College, where the faculty members take turns serving as college deans for three-year terms. I contrast, the dean of Amherst College, Patton said, has served for close to twenty years. There were many different types of models to consider.
One of the changes the new dean will oversee is the restructuring of class deans. Soon, class deans will be assigned to the same class for the four years of their matriculation instead of being assigned to a different class each year.
”[Currently] the work load of class deans isn’t uniform across the boards,“ Patton said. ”The first-year transition to college can be difficult, so the first-year dean has a lot more student activity to deal with. This will be valuable because, since the dean serves this counseling function, the students won’t have to reintroduce themselves each year. We want the office to be able to offer more continuity in terms of help.“
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