Senior Associate Dean of the College and Dean of Upperclass Students Dan Nelson '75 will serve as acting dean of the College beginning this July, College President James Freedman announced yesterday.
Nelson will hold the position until a permanent replacement for current Dean of the College Lee Pelton is found. Pelton is leaving the College this summer to assume the presidency at Willamette University in Salem, Ore.
"I am delighted that Dan has agreed to serve as acting dean," Freedman said. "His long experience with the office and with Dartmouth generally, combined with his academic background and teaching experience, will help Dartmouth continue its tradition of close individual attention to its undergraduates and assistance with their intellectual and personal development."
Nelson said he did not apply for the position, but rather Freedman asked him to step up.
"I was honored to be asked by President Freedman and delighted to have the opportunity to serve the College in this acting capacity," Nelson said.
Pelton announced his resignation in January. Freedman told The Dartmouth last week that he hopes to find a permanent replacement by Fall term, or by next January at the latest.
As acting dean of the College, Nelson said he will work to provide continuity and stability.
"The dean of the College office is currently working on some projects that I intend to see through as far as they can be seen through," Nelson said. "It wouldn't be fair to dump into the lap of the next dean issues that should be resolved between Dean Pelton's departure and the next dean's arrival."
These projects include life-safety improvements to the residence halls this summer as well as athletic facilities issues, including the Scully-Fahey artificial turf field, which is to be located within the Chase Field complex near Thompson Arena.
One of Nelson's first tasks as acting dean of the College will be to appoint someone to handle his responsibilities as senior associate dean of the College, including enforcing and evaluating College policies.
He is currently a member of the Committee on Standards and served on the College Committee on Alcohol and Other Drugs and headed up the fact-finding panel that investigated sophomore Brian de Moya's allegations that he was mistreated by Safety and Security officers last term.
But Nelson will not be making any major changes as acting dean of the College, since that would mean stepping on the toes of the new permanent dean, he said. For example, he said it will be up to the next dean to appoint the new permanent dean of residential life.
The dean of the College search committee, which is chaired by Dean of the Faculty Edward Berger, met last week to put together a description of the qualities its members will be looking for in a new dean. The committee is also preparing open position advertisements and making a list of prospective candidates to call.
Berger told The Dartmouth last week that the committee is sailing in "uncharted waters" because a search for a major College official has never taken place during the summer. Nonetheless, Berger said the committee hopes to have a list of qualified nominees by mid-summer.
Nelson graduated from the College in June 1976 and received his master's and doctoral degrees from Princeton University.
After serving on the faculty of Princeton, Mathey College and the St. Paul's School in Concord, N.H., he returned to the College as an assistant dean and class dean in 1987. Nelson became associate dean of the College in 1994.
The dean of the College handles policy and undergraduate student issues in the deans' offices, ORL, Student Life, Safety and Security, Career Services, Health Services, the Outdoor Programs Office, the Dartmouth College Athletics Department, the International Office, the Native American Program, the Academic Skills Center, the Women's Resource Center and the Dartmouth Skiway, among others.
