Dean's Office
Under the leadership of the Dean, this office strives to meet the needs of individual departments and programs; promotes excellence across Arts & Sciences as a whole; and represents the priorities of Arts & Sciences to the larger university community and to such external constituencies as parents, alumni, and grant-funding agencies.
Carl Strikwerda has served as Dean since July 2004. The office has four deans responsible for day-to-day management of the graduate and undergraduate programs. These deans also serve as the primary administrative liaisons ("contact" deans) between the Dean's Office and assigned departments and programs.
Organizational Chart (PDF)
Dean Strikwerda's early initiatives include retooling the planning process to incorporate longer term objectives and directing funds to meet deferred needs in the sciences. "We are unusual among our peer institutions in having strong and significant programs across the entire landscape of Arts & Sciences," Dean Strikwerda noted. "Each of these fields presents unique considerations with regard to teaching and research. With the recent adjustments to the sciences, I believe we have reached a good calibration and are well positioned to move ahead in all areas."
To help faculty members win outside support for their research and teaching, the Dean sponsors workshops in preparing grant applications. Partly as a result of these workshops, faculty have obtained outside funding to pursue their research and scholarship.
The Dean also helps to coordinate and support interdisciplinary programs, where collaboration across traditional lines has the potential to yield new approaches. Several new faculty positions, for example, have strengthened a biological mathematics initiative based in the Mathematics Department and funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
A key part of the Dean's role takes place off campus, connecting with external constituencies and exploring how alumni and grant-funding agencies can play an active partnership role within Arts & Sciences.
"As professional and community leaders, our graduates offer a great deal of knowledge that can inform our perspective. By opening and pursuing these lines of communication I'm also able to describe the ways in which private support can add tremendous value to our current students' learning experience," noted Dean Strikwerda.
"Already we are seeing Arts & Sciences and the College acknowledged as a uniquely creative environment. As we continue our efforts, I expect to see our approach become a model for public universities nationwide, and for our reputation to stand alone in terms of overall achievement."
