Professor Glen Elder appointed Interim Associate Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences
While Associate Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, Professor of Economics Stephanie Seguino, is on sabbatical this coming academic year, Professor Glen Elder will fill in for her as the associate dean who oversees the social sciences and the fine arts. As Interim Associate Dean, Glen will be particularly responsible for continuing to promote the College's effort to diversify the faculty and staff and enhance a climate supportive of difference. He is fortunate in this effort to be able to build on the highly effective infrastructure Stephanie has put in place over the last several years and I look forward to more progress on this front. His other assignments will include enrollment management, again an area that Stephanie leaves much improved through the efficiencies her analysis and creative problem-solving have made possible, graduate programming, and College research support and awards. Glen will also continue to teach at least one course per year as all academic administrators in the College are expected to do. His appointment will begin on July 1.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Stephanie for her diligence, hard work and good humor and for the mentoring and friendship she offered me as I tried to learn the culture and traditions of the College. I would also like to express my gratitude to Joel Goldberg, who thankfully is not going anywhere. As you all know, he is dependable, wise, creative and knowledgeable; the College faculty, students and I are all very lucky to have him (as are his 56 advisees). When you add Patty Corcoran, Paula Guarnaccia, Andrew Hendrickson, Sarah Gilmore and their respective staffs to the mix, I have to say that the team could not be stronger or more dedicated to serving the College.
I would to ask you to help me welcome Glen. He is a familiar figure to most faculty members in the College, having earned many campus honors from Kroepsch-Maurice to the Dean's Lecture, served as Chair of the Department of Geography, and been both a formal and informal campus leader. In addition, he is a researcher of note nationally and internationally, where his work on the geography of sex, race and place and the legacy of apartheid is highly respected and often cited.
Karen Cuthbert Retires
We also have a College staff member retiring. After 14 years Karen Cuthbert, who handled specific financial transactions including procurements, managed this e-newsletter and often acted as receptionist for the College, ends her career at UVM as of April 30, 2008. Karen came to UVM after a twenty-five year career as an airline attendant for United Airlines. One perk of that former job is free tickets for travel in the U.S. and beyond. So Karen's plan is to relax, garden and take advantage of those tickets. We will miss her calm competence and wry sense of humor. Karen will be replaced by Zenda Farrell, who the College welcomes from the Center for Canadian Studies.
New Faculty
I encourage you to check the College of Arts and Sciences website in about two weeks when we anticipate that we will have pictures and academic biographies of all our new faculty members posted. It is an impressive group of junior and senior scholars whose presence will enrich the intellectual life of the campus and the educational experience of a highly talented group of new students.
Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
