Town hall to discuss next Dean of the College sparsely attended

A town hall on Wednesday night to field suggestions about the search process for the next Dean of the College was attended by just one student.

"Wow, I'm a one-person focus group, huh?" the student said to laughter from the panel. He later said thathe thought the rain might have affected the turnout to the meeting, which was advertised to students over email.

The panel included Dean of the Faculty Deborah Prentice, psychology professor Stacey Sinclair, comparative literature professor and Whitman College master Sandra Bermann, Senior Associate Dean of the Faculty Toni Turano, Undergraduate Student Government academics chair Ramie Fathy ’16 and U-councillor Dallas Nan ’16.

Prentice is the chair of the search committee, Sinclair, Bermann, Fathy and Nan are on the search committee, while Turano is serving as secretary to the committee. Other members of the search committee were not in attendance.

The search for a replacement for Dean of the College Valerie Smith, who is leaving to become president of Swarthmore College, is limited to internal candidates only, Prentice said. The Dean of the College must be a member of the faculty, and even in the past when outside candidates have become Dean of the College, they had to gain an appointment as a member of the faculty first, she noted.

The search process is ongoing and members of the University community should continue to submit their suggestions for faculty members to replace Smith or more general comments to the committee, Prentice said.

The committee will give three names of faculty members to University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 before the end of the year for his consideration, she added, noting it is ultimately up to him to make the final selection as to who should be the next Dean of the College.

Faculty members have already shown a heavy interest in who fills the position, Prentice said, explaining that numerous faculty have already nominated their colleagues or themselves for the position.

The search committee has not received outside direction from higher level administrators, Prentice said, noting, however, that administrators have made clear that they believe whoever becomes the next Dean of the College is a very important matter for the future of the University.

With the strategic planning process underway, Prentice saidthere is an opportunity for the next Dean of the College to help think substantively about what's important to the University and where its priorities should be.

In response to a question about how important students perceived the choice of administrators to be, the student in attendance said that most people identify the administration with residential college administrators and Eisgruber, and have only a vague idea of the roles of other administrators.

However, the choice of Dean of the College is also important in light of concerns about mental health and sexual misconduct on campus, the student later said.

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In a tie-breaker scenario, it would be good to have the next Dean of the College be a woman to interact with students more effectively on these issues, he added.

The next Dean of the College would ideally be an effective administrator as well as teacher and researcher, Bermann said, adding there was no "litmus test" for the position.

The meeting was held at 7:00 p.m. in McCormick Hall 101.