Last Dean Standing
March 10th, 2009
Maybe RPITV will have a new show soon...
Well it looks like David A. Gautschi is the winner of the non-existent Last Dean Standing competition. Dr. Jackson sent an email to the RPI community yesterday announcing the departure of John Harrington, Dean of the Rensselaer School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. He has accepted a position of Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Fordham University. This leaves only one academic Dean position filled by a non-interim faculty (Lally). RPI’s other schools: Science, Architecture, Engineering, and HASS, all currently have/will have vacancies. It would seem that with all of these academic leaders leaving for positions at other schools, that we undervalue their positions at the ‘tute, or that they are getting frustrated with something and are leaving RPI as a result. I hope that we can find some solid leaders to fill the vacant positions.
The full email is below.
To: The Rensselaer Community
From: Shirley Ann Jackson, Ph.D.
President and Professor of Physics
Date: March 9, 2009
Subject: John Harrington Accepts Deanship at Fordham
I write to inform you that Professor John Harrington, Dean of the
Rensselaer School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, has accepted
the position of Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Fordham
University.
This is an exciting new opportunity for Professor Harrington, so while I
will miss his strong leadership and wise counsel, I personally am happy
for him and his wife Janet as they look forward to the new experiences
ahead of them.
Dean Harrington's new appointment is effective July 1. I will announce
soon the process for a search for his successor and the arrangements for
interim leadership for the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social
Sciences.
His new responsibilities will include overseeing 470 faculty members in
20 departments, enrollments of 6,000 undergraduate and graduate
students, special programs such as dance at Lincoln Center with Alvin
Ailey and theater in London with the Academy of Dramatic Arts, and
Fordham's science liaisons with Albert Einstein Medical Center and the
Bronx Botanical Garden. He will report to the Executive Vice President
and have responsibility for all academic affairs of four colleges on the
three university campuses in the Bronx, Westchester, and Lincoln Center.
Dr. Harrington was appointed Dean of the Rensselaer School of
Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences in 2002. Over the past seven
years, he launched the Humanities Center, worked collaboratively with
deans and faculty to develop new graduate and undergraduate degree
programs, tripled the number of humanities and social science degrees
granted between 2000 and 2008, increased admitted students 20 percent
per year from 2002 through 2006, and increased and diversified the
undergraduate population and portfolio of majors. During his tenure at
Rensselaer, he has appointed new heads of four of five departments and
supported the professional advancement of women in key administrative
roles.
He also worked to strengthen the culture of research at Rensselaer by
creating a Funding Bulletin and support for faculty fellowships in the
Humanities and Arts, opening new research facilities including the
Social and Behavioral Research Lab, and increasing sponsored research
new grants from near zero in 2002 to $5.5 million in awards in FY08. He
also instituted a continuing cycle of scholarly conference meetings on
campus and brought new academic journals to the Rensselaer campus.
Dr. Harrington is the author of "The Life of the Neighborhood Playhouse
on Grand Street" (University of Syracuse Press, 2008), a work nominated
for the American Theatre Book of the Year by the Theatre Historical
Society of America. He edited several volumes on Irish theater
including "Modern and Contemporary Irish Drama", the 2008 Norton Critical
Edition anthology, and "Irish Theater in America", the third annual
collection of essays from the Irish Theatrical Diaspora Project
(Syracuse, 2008). Dr. Harrington co-edited "The Future of Irish Studies:
Report from the Irish Forum Florence 2005" (Prague: Center for Irish
Studies, Charles University, 2006), and "Politics and Performance in
Contemporary Northern Ireland" (University of Massachusetts Press, 1999).
He has also published numerous scholarly essays and reviews and has
given many presentations and invited lectures nationally and
internationally.
We will announce a time for an event later in the spring term to
celebrate Dr. Harrington's achievements at Rensselaer, but meanwhile
please join me in extending our sincere congratulations and best wishes
as he begins his transition.
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That other institutions WANT to hire our deans is the highest tribute to Rensselaer excellence. You want academic leaderss no one else wants?
By that measure, marry someone ugly and not to smart–they’ll never be unfaithful.
Remember the old calypso song:
“….if you want to be happy for the rest of your life,
never make a pretty woman your wife,
and from my personal point of view,
get an ugly girl to marry you. . . “
No. That’s a ridiculous argument. What we should be striving for is keeping our school good enough so that they want to stay.
In your example, you should be a good enough spouse so that your spouse doesn’t need to become unfaithful.
Our administration should be including faculty in decision-making, just as they should be including students, and they would be able to keep their deans.
Also, since it takes so long to hire them, we miss out for a couple of years as students, which isn’t okay either.
yes, we should strive to keep our deans, but this one’s not surprising, is it? i mean, it’s a better position and some excellent clinical faculty are being cut from his school … doesn’t come across as a sign that RPI cares about your department, n’est-ce pas?