Senior associate Dean of the College Inge-Lise Ameer will assume the role of interim Dean of the College on Aug. 1, the College announced Wednesday morning. Dean of the College Charlotte Johnson officially begins as vice president for student affairs and dean of students at Scripps College, located in Claremont, California, that day.
Ameer heads the student academic support services and campus life initiatives in the office of the Dean of the College, where she has worked to expand advising services and accessibility at the College.
She said in a Wednesday interview that she does not plan to launch major new initiatives in the role. Instead, she will continue work on Deans Office projects like the Center for Community Action and Prevention and a new residential housing system.
Under her tenure, she said, she hopes to increase cooperation among campus centers seeking to combat high-risk behaviors, she said.
“The division has worked for the last three years under Dean Johnson on some long term goals,” she said. “I will continue those.”
Since the arrival of the Class of 2016 in fall 2012, Dartmouth has replaced its President, Provost and Dean of the College, among other high-level administrative positions.
Ameer said that she does not expect the shifting administrative landscape to affect students. The offices most important to undergraduates, she said, are"on-the-ground" infrastructure,including the Academic Skills Center, Undergraduate Deans Office, Greek Letter Organizations and Societies, the First Year Student Enrichment Program and the Office of Residential Life.
“The other thing that I always say about new faces is it’s going to bring new ideas to the table, innovation to the table,” Ameer said.
Since she arrived in 2010 from Harvard University, the College opened an advising center in March 2013 above Carson Hall, centralizing the Office of Pluralism and Leadership, pre-health advising and the undergraduate deans office. This move has resulted in a 30 percent increase in student usage of advising services, according to the College’s release announcing Ameer’s appointment.
Over her tenure, Dartmouth has also tried various programs — including Academic UGAs as part of an Advising 360 program for clusters of students — to improve advising, particularly among freshmen.
Budget constrictions in 2009 eliminated several dean positions, leaving each undergraduate dean to advise approximately 850 students. The College added four new dean positions in spring 2011, reducing the load per administrator. Later that year, the advising office would move from Parkhurst Hall to a more central Baker-Berry Library location, settling above Carson two years later.
Ameer has also contributed to the College’s plans for future housing initiatives.
In February, Ameer hosted a Moving Dartmouth Forward session with residential education director Mike Wooten on housing initiatives that will begin in the fall, including several affinity houses for students with common interests, including a “design-your-own” option.
She said in a spring 2014 interview that the new neighborhoods system will help sophomores, who often do not have as strong of a residential community. But she noted that the housing systems at Harvard and Yale University cannot be duplicatedat Dartmouth with its D-Plan.
“We want to make this work for Dartmouth students,” she said at the time.
Ameer came to Dartmouth in 2010 after serving as Harvard’s director of advising programs.
