This summer, the College merged three divisions — the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Division of Undergraduate Education and the Division of Undergraduate Student Affairs — to form the School of Arts and Science. The Dartmouth checked in with administrators about how the School has impacted life at Dartmouth.
The School will promote a “closer” connection between academics and student life, according to an email statement to The Dartmouth from interim dean of undergraduate student affairs Anne Hudak.
Hudak wrote that the new “structure” within the School will give students a more “coordinated experience” while navigating their undergraduate education.
“Admissions, advancement, finance and other key areas are now part of the same conversations about undergraduate priorities,” Hudak wrote. “That means recruitment strategies, funding, budgeting decisions and even how we talk to prospective students are grounded in a clear view of what life at Dartmouth is actually like for students and how we’re working together to support the student experience.”
The School was announced in November 2024 after the Board of Trustees voted unanimously to create it. In an interview with The Dartmouth at the time, College President Sian Leah Beilock explained that the project — which began under former College President Phil Hanlon in 2022 — was meant to centralize resources for students so that the College could be a “great research university that is focused on the undergraduate experience.”
Hudak wrote that students “will start to feel the [School’s] impact soon and into the future.”
“Launching the new school is a big change, and we’re still building toward the full potential of this structure,” Hudak wrote.
These changes, she wrote, include “advising and transfer support,” “better coordination” for off-campus programs and “decisions that reflect the undergraduate student experience.”
Interim dean of the faculty of Arts and Sciences John Carey said that a “major” reason for the addition of the school was to reflect how “Dartmouth grew organically as an institution, a little at a time.”
Carey added that Dartmouth’s growth makes it “a very different institution” than it was historically. He said the role of dean of faculty has expanded from “hiring, reviewing and maintaining faculty,” to overseeing the registrar’s office, off-campus programs and undergraduate research.
Carey said that under the School of Arts and Sciences, several of these responsibilities will be shifted to a new dean of undergraduate education.
Interim dean of arts and sciences Nina Pavcnik wrote that faculty “played a key role in the process,” including by providing “input” into the proposal for a new school and by conducting an “advisory vote” on the decision.
“Faculty provided input into the Future of Arts and Sciences proposal … through faculty governance committees, town halls and other meetings large and small,” Pavcnik wrote.
Carey said that he wants to “disrupt the faculty’s lives as little as possible” in his role as interim dean.
A search advisory committee began a search for an inaugural dean of Arts and Sciences — who will collaborate with students, faculty and staff to deliver “on the school’s mission”— on Sept. 25, according to Pavcnik.
Hudak wrote in her statement that the new School is meant to “enhance” the undergraduate experience.
“Every part of our work is designed to make Dartmouth a place where the undergraduate student experience,” Hudak wrote. “From how you first connect with admissions to the day you graduate — is more integrated, more coordinated and more focused on you.”
