This past Friday, Dean of the faculty Michael Mastanduno announced the appointment of three new associate deans of the arts and sciences. English professor Barbara Will, psychology professor Jay Hull and biology professor Elizabeth Smith will become the associate deans for the arts and humanities, social science and science divisions, respectively, effective July 1.
Will explained that associate deans take on a variety of roles, including managing promotions, appointing faculty members and developing strategies to attract high-quality human and material resources to the College.
All three deans said that they are excited to start in their new positions and that they look forward to representing the needs of their individual divisions.
Will said that she is excited to promote the achievements of the arts and humanities faculty and plans to engage in conversations with various members within her division to do so. She stressed that the arts and humanities has much to offer and that it is important to communicate that point at an organizational level.
“There’s all of these things that you learn through the study of the arts and humanities that are intangible but haveincredibly important effects on society,” she said. “We are at a moment now, as an institution, where it’s important to articulate what is valuable in each of these divisions of the administration.”
Hull said that one of his main goals as associate dean will be listening to the various suggestions, comments and complaints of his colleagues and to respond to them with a great deal of attention.
“What I feel is that my allegiance to the division more broadly will require me to listen carefully to what their needs are and concerns are that might be different from the ones that I have become accustomed to within the psychological and brain science department,” he said.
Smith said that she recognizes the importance of maintaining a steady supply of “cutting-edge” resources and infrastructure for faculty and students, and as dean, she said she would like to work on obtaining those items within the available budget. In doing so, she said she plans to coordinate research and development not only within the College but also with the Geisel School of Medicine and the Thayer School of Engineering.
“It’s not just about supporting faculty research — that research is also what the undergraduates are involved in,” she said. “They are not separable — the scholarship and educational mission.”
Smith added that her new position has similar responsibilities to her previous role as the chair of the biology department in that both positions require her to oversee issues such as the creation of curricula and the appointment and promotion of faculty. She said that she is excited to execute these functions at a higher level that will involve more people and a larger agenda.
Hull also served as the chair of his department, and he said that this previous administrative experience has familiarized him with some of the responsibilities that he will manage in his new role. In addition, Hull took courses on budget management to further develop his skills.
Will has served in various administrative positions, most recently as the chair of the “Moving Dartmouth Forward” presidential steering committee, and she said that these previous experiences will guide her through the new role and inform her.
In addition, Hull, Smith and Will each said that their scholarly backgrounds will contribute to their performance in their new roles.
Will said that her academic work will enable her to assess other faculty members’ work.
Specializing in social psychology, Hull said that he has studied the science behind human interaction and communication, which he said will be a critical component in his management responsibilities, particularly when dealing with frustrations or queries.
“Behind those requests or complaints are valid concerns,” he said. “So I want to listen to them and help them work through the problems that they might have or to get at the nub of what their request is.”
Smith said that her own recent academic work entailed collaborating with some of the faculty members from the physics department, which she said familiarized her with cross-departmental cooperation. She said her involvement in various graduate programs, including those at Geisel, has enabled her to understand the interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary relationships in academia and that she looks forward to involving herself more in those dynamics.
Will said that personally, she looks forward to actively engaging with other faculty members.
“I’ve written books and I’ve written articles but I tend to do that work sort of alone or in solitary kind of way, and I’ve noticed from my administrative experience that I definitely enjoy the more collaborative kind of work so that’s something, I have to say, I’m looking forward to,” she said.
Correction appended (May 13, 2015):
A previous version of this article misquoted Will as saying,“There’s all of these things you learn through the study of arts and humanities that are intangible but has incredibly important effects on society.We are at a moment now, as an institution, where it’s important to articulate what is valuable in each of these divisions of the administrations.”
Will said,“There’s all of these things that you learn through the study of the arts and humanities that are intangible but haveincredibly important effects on society.We are at a moment now, as an institution, where it’s important to articulate what is valuable in each of these divisions of the administration.”
