New advising plan revealed

The search for the new director, who will work in the Office of International Programs (OIP), begins this week.

The position will concentrate solely on advising for postgraduate fellowships and undergraduate scholarships, a narrower range of duties than those taken on by Ordiway, Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel said in an e-mail. In addition to overseeing fellowship advising, Ordiway oversaw the Freshman Scholars Institute, an academic summer program for select incoming freshmen.

“We’ve been able to create that new position as a result of ongoing reorganization in the staffing of the Office of the Dean of the College,” Malkiel said. The director will report directly to Senior Associate Dean of the College Nancy Kanach, who directs OIP.

The creation of the position under the umbrella of OIP marks a change from the current system, placing it in the same office that currently oversees the International Internship Program as well as other study abroad programs.

“They’ll be talking to each other all the time — that’s what happens when you’re part of an office,” Malkiel said.

In addition to the new position, two new faculty advisers — politics lecturer Alan Ryan and politics professor Melissa Lane — who have both studied abroad in the United Kingdom, have been appointed to replace Professors Joshua Katz and Constanze Guthenke.

Katz and Guthenke previously played key roles in advising for the Rhodes and Marshall scholarships, but will be on leave for the 2010-11 academic year.

Despite the creation of the new position, the system’s logistics remain unclear, Malkiel said.

She noted that the new appointee will not necessarily come from inside the University.

“We are running a national search ... We also welcome internal candidates, of course,” she said.

“[It’s] too soon to say how the enterprise will be organized, given that we are hiring the new director, and that we are just beginning serious conversations with professors Lane and Ryan,” Malkiel added.

But, Lane said, she and Ryan are already beginning discussions on the new fellowship advising system.

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“We’re starting to work together as a team,” she said, but added, “there’s nothing fixed in stone at this point.”

Going into her new position, Lane said she has some hopes for how the program will run.

“[There are] two things I want to stress at this point,” Lane sad. “One, to encourage people to think of the Gates [a scholarship for study at Cambridge University], which is a major scholarship on par with the Rhodes and Marshall. The second thing is to encourage people to look at universities all across the United Kingdom, particularly for the Marshall Scholarship.”

Whether professors Katz and Guthenke will resume their positions as faculty advisers upon their return is still unclear, according to both Lane and Malkiel.

“We’ll see when they’re back and available, but we’re not making those decisions now,” Malkiel said. “Obviously, experienced faculty members who are willing and available to work to support our students in these fellowship competitions are warmly welcome to do so.”