WEB UPDATE
Friday, June 4, 5:48 p.m.
After two years as Dean of the Faculty, Michael Gazzaniga will step down from his position following Commencement, when an acting dean will take over the post, College President James Wright announced Friday afternoon in an e-mail to the arts and sciences faculty. Gazzaniga's decision comes in the wake of a contentious faculty vote last week against his leadership.
According to Wright, Gazzaniga will return to work in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.
In his e-mail, Wright acknowledged the differences among faculty members that led to Gazzaniga's resignation and vowed to help heal them.
"Both Mike and I very much regret the differences among the faculty and pledge to work together to resolve them," Wright said.
But, despite those differences, Wright touted Gazzaniga's accomplishments as Dean of the Faculty, acknowledging him for growing the faculty, promoting connections across academic disciplines and presiding over building new space for certain departments.
"I would like to thank Mike for his work as dean for the past two years where he has championed faculty scholarship and has expanded the number and ambitions of the faculty. He has worked to resolve pressing space needs for several departments. He has encouraged cross-disciplinary connections within the Arts and Sciences and with the professional schools, which he will continue to do as the only University Professor at Dartmouth," Wright wrote.
Wright will begin meeting with the faculty's Committee on Organization and Policy and Committee Advisory to the President within the next few days to discuss the appointment of the interim dean who will take over the position when Gazzaniga steps down.
Gazzaniga, the David T. McLaughlin Distinguished University Professor and the Director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, has recently received two major research grants and will continue his work in the field of cognitive neuroscience. Gazzaniga was also recently elected president of the American Psychological Society, and he is a member of the President's Council on Bioethics. Gazzaniga refused to comment.
