Two weeks after administrators announced the creation of a dean of undergraduate education, they are working with faculty members to fill the new position-and to define what that role will mean in practice.
The search committee has begun to solicit applications from faculty members and will convene next week to begin discussing the selection process, said Peter Burian, the committee's chair.
Burian, chair of classical studies, professor of theater studies and former chair of the Academic Council, said the six-person committee hopes to submit a list of three finalists to Provost Peter Lange and President Richard Brodhead by May 10.
"This needs to be a person with a very strong commitment to the coordination of all the aspects of undergraduate education," Burian said.
Brodhead, who announced the position March 22, said it was created largely to address the disconnect among the different aspects of undergraduate life at the administrative level.
"The administration of undergraduate education is done here by very thoughtful and good-hearted people," he said. "But the structure is a very compartmentalized one."
Since his announcement, Brodhead has emphasized that the search will be internal and that the position will be filled by a member of the faculty.
"It needs to be someone who knows and cares about what it means to be a teacher, who knows students the way a teacher knows students, but also who has a broad interest in student life and a deep commitment to student welfare," he said.
Lange said the principles of the new position are well embodied in the already-existing Undergraduate Leadership Group, which was created about a year ago to address the varying components of undergraduate life. The ULG is composed of the deans and administrators whose positions affect undergraduate life.
Upon his or her selection, the dean of undergraduate education will chair the ULG, said Lange, who currently chairs the group.
In effect, the new position will shift the responsibilities of other administrative positions, Brodhead said, although he noted that the primary intention of the position was not to alter current roles.
"Its principal function is to provide a place of integration and coordination," he said.
The new deanship will have the largest effect on the Office of the Provost, said Larry Moneta, vice president for student affairs.
In many ways, the dean will serve as the "spokesperson" for undergraduate educational priorities, Brodhead said, adding that Lange has served much of that role in the past.
"The provost has been serving on-point in connecting the dots on the undergraduate experience," Moneta said.
Moneta, Robert Thompson, dean of Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, and Kristina Johnson, dean of the Pratt School of Engineering will now report to this dean, in addition to reporting to the provost and other top administrators.
Although the announcement of the position was made soon after the Feb. 27 release of the Campus Culture Initiative's report, Brodhead and Lange said the idea for the new dean has been in the works for years.
"The CCI is certainly a stimulant, even though the CCI itself did not mention this," Lange said.
Administrators said the idea has been raised in a number of discussions in recent years, most notably in the drafting of the recent strategic plan.
Lange and Brodhead emphasized that although coordination and interaction among the different components of undergraduate life will be the dean's primary objective, both said they see the possibility for new ideas and projects to arise.
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