The College is waiting to begin searching for a new Dean of the College until after the presidential steering and residential redesign committees present recommendations on improving student life, making it unlikely the search will begin until early 2015.
Waiting for these groups, tasked with finding ways the College can reduce binge drinking, sexual assault and exclusivity and improve residential life, to present their findings will enable the Dean of the College search committee to envision the proposed changes while selecting a candidate, said Provost Carolyn Dever.
“I want to understand our destination before I put someone behind the wheel,” she said.
While the committees’ recommendations will affect the “details” of the job, the vision and authority of the position will remain the same, Dever said.
In June, College President Phil Hanlon appointed Senior Associate Dean of the College Inge-Lise Ameer to serve as interim Dean of the College, taking the place of Charlotte Johnson, who left to become vice president for student affairs and dean of students at Scripps College in Claremont, California.
Ameer said she will build on current initiatives and help implement the presidential steering committee’s recommendations, which are now expected to be put before the Board of Trustees in January.
Upon assuming her role in August, Ameer said she redistributed her former responsibilities as senior associate dean, worked with the orientation team to foster a smooth transition for first-year students and continued to serve as a member of the residential redesign committee. She has also worked to refine the role of the Center for Community Action and Prevention, announced by Johnson in February to combat sexual assault.
A search for CCAP director is underway, and Ameer said she asked Associate Dean of the College Liz Agosto to form a student and faculty advisory committee, citing a desire for campus involvement in the new center’s development.
Ameer said she has also asked Agosto to determine how the Health and Wellness Office can work with the Center for Gender and Student Engagement.
This fall, the Dean’s Office will also begin a search for a new Office of Pluralism and Leadership director, Ameer said.
Dever said she hopes the new Dean of the College commits to the position for a substantial period of time, noting that the customary appointment is five years.
Economics and public policy professor Charles Wheelan ’88 said turnover in the presidency could be responsible for changes in the Dean of the College position.
Biology professor Lee Witters said there will always be administrative turnover, but a longstanding commitment from the new dean would benefit the College.
“It takes a year or two for someone to develop institutional relationships, and importantly, confidence from others in the institution,” Witters said. “If people are switching off every three or four years, it doesn’t work too well.”
Wheelan said he thinks the new dean should reflect a clear vision from both Hanlon and the Board of Trustees. The new dean should also be able to mobilize the Dartmouth community around pertinent student life issues.
“If you think about the major issues on campus – diversity, sexual assault, binge drinking – across the board they tend to fall under the purview of the Dean of the College,” Wheelan said. “Dealing with those things is going to require a strong dean with a clear set of views who is capable of getting buy-in and cooperation from all the different constituencies.”
Witters said the new dean must be able to work effectively with all campus members, from first-year students to faculty members to the College president. The new dean should also have an excellent “public persona,” Witters said.
Music professor Steven Swayne wrote in an email that he hopes the new dean will build on a preexisting priority of the Dean’s Office: to support learning by helping build a community of students who are highly engaged outside of the classroom.
“I am looking for someone who will help us all – not just the students – grow in our understanding that we are a community focused on the work of learning,” Swayne wrote.
The residential redesign committee will present recommendations to the Board of Trustees in September, while the presidential steering committee will present recommendations to the Board in January, after which the Dean of the College search committee will be established.
In the past decade, six people have served as Dean of the College: Jim Larimore, Dan Nelson (interim), Thomas Crady, Sylvia Spears (interim), Johnson and Ameer (interim).
The College has traditionally chosen internal administrators to serve as interim Deans of the College while the search for a new dean is organized. When Crady abruptly left in 2009, two months into former College President Jim Yong Kim’s tenure, Spears stepped in as acting Dean of the College. Dartmouth did not form a search committee to replace Spears until January 2011.
