I'm nearing the anniversary of my second year as Dean of UVM's College of Arts and Sciences. The experience this year was quite different from last: I have my sea legs. The College is now comfortably settled into its new home at 438 College, and, the staff will, if it ever stops raining, soon begin to enjoy the new wicker furniture that now graces the building's porch. I now understand and appreciate the round of traditions that have emerged over time and give the College and the University their distinctive Green Mountain flavor, and have begun some of my own. (See the brief piece on Soupy Tuesdays elsewhere in this e-newsletter.) I am now as likely as anyone to crow about UVM's chapter of Phi Beta Kappa being the first in the country to admit a woman and an African American or to remark on the fact that first-year students in Arts and Sciences are advised by faculty who teach them in small seminars, rather than finding themselves advised by a staff of "professional advisors" with little familiarity with the intellectual life of the disciplines, and that there is almost no chance that first-years will find themselves being instructed by teaching assistants in large auditoria. Moreover, although I was immediately taken with the great physical beauty of UVM's setting, I now know that there is hidden beauty on the campus as well. When I'm feeling particularly frazzled, I seek it out. (The Fleming Museum's marble court is a particular favorite.) In short, even though Trustee Carl Lisman tells me frequently that I'll never be a Vermonter (it apparently takes seven generations), I was attracted to living in Vermont because I felt an affinity with the culture of its citizens, but now that I have both Birkenstock's and Merrill's and have my eye on a Suburu, I'm feeling every bit a Vermonter.

I have also now taught two sociology courses and have tried to become an unobtrusive member of my own academic department, attending colloquia and sitting in on the job talks of candidates I've interviewed as Dean earlier in the day. In addition, during Accepted Student Days, I have become an intimate part of the faculty group that presents discrete pieces of favorite lectures as a way of introducing students and their parents to the sort of intellectual adventures available at UVM and thus convince them that UVM is their best choice. The pièce de rèsistance is when, at the end of the program, I reveal that I have other duties in addition to being the professor who teaches the sociology of deviant behavior course: The point not lost on the audience is that in CAS the Dean and, indeed, the President and the Provost, all teach (or will soon when the Provost offers a geology course and a field experience next year).

It would take a small monograph to tell you about what's happened in the College since the last E-Newsletter, but here's a taste. A university-wide committee, headed by Associate Professor of Anthropology, Luis Vivanco, has begun work on a B.A. in Global Studies within CAS that will be the foundation for other global studies initiatives in other UVM schools and colleges. The new Department of Asian Languages and Literatures and the new majors in Chinese and Japanese are before the Faculty Senate for approval and, with luck, will be considered by the Board of Trustees in fall. The faculty voted this past year to require that beginning with the cohort of students who enter UVM next year, all CAS students will be required to complete courses in seven areas of study in addition to fulfilling the requirements of their majors and minors. The effect of this is that in the very near future no Arts and Sciences student will be able to graduate without a solid exposure to science and every student will take at least a year of a language. Other curricular changes under consideration or in the works include a major and minor in linguistics, restoration of the Ph.D. in Physics and the M.A. in Geography, a major in neuroscience, and doctorates in social policy and communication sciences. As a result of the generosity of Carolyn and Leonard Miller, searches for a new director, a distinguished professor, and distinguished visiting professors of Holocaust Studies have been launched, as has a search for UVM's first faculty member in Japanese and a search for a new Director of Women's and Gender Studies.

The College is also gearing up to do its part to help UVM prepare for its accreditation review in 2009. There is no doubt that UVM will be accredited, but Arts and Sciences would really like to help the University shine when compared to its New England peers. The ground has shifted in this regard in ways that parallel "No Child Left Behind." It is no longer adequate to show evidence that the faculty is well-qualified, that students do well after graduation, that the library has adequate resources, and that UVM has its fiscal house in order. UVM must demonstrate that at every level it has clear learning goals in place, relevant ways of assessing student achievement of those goals, and mechanisms in place to assure that it addresses any shortfalls it detects. The sheer documentation of these processes in a college as large as Arts and Sciences is a huge undertaking, but one that is well underway.

You can see for yourself in another part of this newsletter that the College continues to hire talented faculty from across the nation, and, indeed, we recruit internationally. What may not be obvious is that, primarily through the creative efforts of Associate Dean Stephanie Seguino, Arts and Sciences has also been quite successful in attracting a more diverse cohort of new faculty than in the past. Then, of course, a description of what's new in the College would be quite incomplete without a discussion of the latest cohort of students. It is a very talented group no matter what the measure: SAT scores, class rank, community involvement, the range of musical and artistic ability, etc. We won't really know until September how many of them there will be, but our goal was an entering CAS class of about 1250. My guess is that we will be very close to that number.

To the degree that this missive is a mini "State of the College," I am confident in saying that UVM's College of Arts and Sciences is in good shape. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the faculty and staff in the College's 21 departments as well as the staff housed at 438 College St., without whom I would certainly not be able to make the pronouncement I just have, including Patty Corcoran, Assistant Dean for Student Affairs; Paula Guarnaccia, Assistant Dean for Finance and Budget; Associate Deans Joel Goldberg and Stephanie Seguino; Linda DeMag and Kerry Castano, without whom no one would ever be hired or get paid; and the college advisors, especially Lise Larose, who intervene regularly in CAS students' lives to make sure they stay on track. A special thanks to Sarah Gilmore, as well as Karen Cuthbert and Sally Knight, who make sure that I stay on track and to a new arrival, Craig Wells, who has made a real difference in the way the College presents itself to the world and hosts visitors.

At the same time, my high school motto, which I have adopted as my own, is ad altiora: we can always do more and we can always do it better. Alumni contributions are critically important to our success. Arts and Sciences has a new development officer, Joan Cook, and she and I will be actively soliciting contributions in support of College initiatives, and traveling around the country to speak to alumni groups and groups of prospective students. If you have a group that would like a visit, please let Joan or me know. Finally, the newsletter offers you an opportunity to make a contribution to the College; please consider doing so. Thanks.

Dean, College of Arts and Sciences