Wilson Master to leave U. for deanship at Harvey Mudd

Browning’s appointment, which also includes an associate professorship in the college’s linguistics department, is effective July 1.

“I’m especially grateful for having had the opportunity to lead Wilson College for five years and I will miss my Wilson College colleagues and the wonderful Wilson College students terribly,” Browning said in an e-mail to The Daily Princetonian. “Teaching Princeton students has been a privilege and a pleasure.”

Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel — to whom all college masters report — praised Browning in an e-mail as “an inspiration to her students and staff and a wonderful colleague.”

“Maggie Browning has been an absolutely splendid Master of Wilson College, and we are extraordinarily grateful for her imaginative, highly effective leadership in that role,” she said.

Malkiel added the process of identifying Browning’s successor will “begin in due course.”

Browning said that she hadn’t been thinking about leaving Princeton until she was nominated for the position.

When Harvey Mudd president Maria Klawe called to ask Browning if she would be interested in applying, Browning said that she “realized that [she] was interested.”

Klawe served as dean of the University’s engineering school from 2003 to 2006.

Leading the Office of Student Affairs at Harvey Mudd, Browning will oversee many of the same activities that she has managed at Princeton, including residential life, student activities and student emotional health. She will also supervise administrators responsible for areas such as career services, institutional diversity and the registrar, and she will participate “in decision-making at the highest level” as a member of the president’s cabinet, Browning said.

Rather than instituting specific projects at Harvey Mudd, Browning said she plans to “provide the support and mentoring that allow students to realize their goals.”

“It’s part of my philosophy that a student should take control of both the academic and social aspects of his or her college experience,” she said.

Harvey Mudd Director of Public Relations Don Davidson said that Browning was the “best choice” among “some very good candidates.”

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Davidson noted that Browning’s “strong interest in students, the welfare of our students and providing an environment in which students can thrive” made her stand out.

“We’re very pleased that she decided to come on board, because we think she’ll be a great addition to our staff and she’ll work very well with our students,” he added.

Browning said she “felt an immediate affinity with the students, staff and faculty of Harvey Mudd,” adding that the culture is similar to what she experienced as a graduate student at MIT, where she wrote her dissertation under adviser Noam Chomsky.

Browning began at Princeton as an assistant professor of linguistics in 1990. After her promotion to associate professor, she served as the director of the Program in Linguistics from 1997 to 2001. She became Wilson master in 2004.

In her scholarly work, Browning has focused on how people come to know and understand the sentence structure of their native languages.

Staff writer Melissa Loewinger contributed reporting.