Two more A&S dean finalists hold forum

Two more candidates for the position of the dean of the College of Arts & Sciences held forums at the university, citing the university’s connection to the community as a priority for the new dean and a vital part of student and faculty scholarship.

Ronald Irving and George Watson both spoke this week at the Roselle Center for the Arts about how their fostering of certain programs would seek to strengthen the university’s standing in the region.

Irving, who spoke on Thursday, is a professor of mathematics at the University of Washington, but is on sabbatical writing a book. He served as interim dean of Washington’s College of Arts & Sciences from 2006 to 2008.

Irving stressed interdepartmental communication and the value of the university’s relationship with the community and the surrounding metropolises of Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York.

“It’s very important to me that the university plays a role in the region, and I see Delaware doing that,” Irving said, citing the Professional Theatre Training Program as both a reputation builder for the university and an important connection to arts in the region.

During his presentation on Monday, Watson, currently the interim dean of the university’s College of Arts & Sciences, also emphasized the university’s role in the community, specifically through the training of secondary education teachers.

“We believe that the best high school teachers take a degree in the discipline,” Watson said.

He highlighted the GK-12 program, which pairs graduate students in the sciences with Delaware science teachers. The result is the enrichment of both the teachers’ curricula and practical experience for the teachers-in-training, Watson said.

Irving said the needs of the community can be addressed throughout the College of Arts & Sciences, from the ethics of environmental policy to the relationship between politics and religion. All of these matters have their home in the College of Arts & Sciences, he said.

“It’s natural, and you might say essential, that the college connect its work to the needs of the community and the needs across the university,” Irving said.

Watson said the Black American studies and women’s studies programs reflect the cultural diversity that is needed at the university to reflect the diversity of the community.

Irving said relationships within departments and colleges are also vitally important.

Irving noted that there are natural points of contact between the various colleges at the university, and he believes that that makes for natural collaboration, especially across liberal arts disciplines.

“It starts with the notion that the faculty and students of the university are jointly engaging in the study of human culture in all its manifestations,” Irving said.

He said the dean has the responsibility to ensure that different departments and colleges are communicating to further scholarship. Irving said another role of the dean’s is to encourage faculty excellence and drive, which in the sciences is done via high-tech research facilities.

“I know here the most pressing priority would be the new interdisciplinary science and engineering building,” Irving said. “I gather it’s going to happen even without funding.”

Watson also addressed the construction of this new building, highlighting that it would house both teaching labs and research facilities in the same space, thereby allowing students to witness day-to-day scientific research.

He said there is a pending re-organization of the College of Education and Public Policy.

“One possible outcome of that may be that the College of Arts & Sciences really becomes the hub of the social sciences,” Watson said.

He said there has been further reconfiguration of the college with the computer and informational science department soon transferring to the College of Engineering, leaving only six sciences left in the College of Arts & Sciences. Four other science departments have previously left the college.

“But that’s it,” Watson said. “We’re not sending any more science departments to other colleges.”

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1 comments

Anonymous

Mon Mar 15 2010 13:34

fair but expect more details

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