Brown and White Vol. 128 no. 15

              The Brown and White
Vol. 128 No. 15
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
‘All the Lehigh News First’
Donald Hall, the dean of Lehigh’s College of Arts and Sciences, is undergoing a dean review process, a procedure that was implemented in 2010 by Pat Farrell, the provost and vice president for academic affairs.
Provost Farrell decided to imple­ment the dean review process in order to assess the achievements and areas for improvement of Lehigh’s deans. The idea behind this process was not to evaluate the deans, but rather find a way to provide feedback for the future.
“One of the biggest challenges of being an administrator is receiving straight forward feedback,” Farrell said.
Farrell initially came up with this idea because of the broad array of responsibilities a dean can have. According to Farrell, a dean interacts with so many people on a college cam­pus that a review committee allows for the ability to gather input from any and all directions.
In previous years, a smaller com­mittee of two or three members would gather to review the dean. This small committee did not seek the inputs of others on campus.
“Now it is useful to let folks who wish to, or who are asked, to share their comments and their feedback,” Farrell said. “That is the most helpful way to improve things.”
Farrell also stressed the impor­tance of understanding the true pur­pose of the reviews. He said this process is much different from the typical professor review. Reviews for professors are one-on-one with the department chair, and they go over
Programs such as the Arabic language program and South Mountain College have continu­ously been in danger of being cut from Lehigh’s academic curric­ulum due to low enrollment and lack of faculty support.
For the 2015-2016 year, South Mountain College, a program focused on intellectual curi­osity with an interdisciplinary approach and no letter grades, will no longer be available at Lehigh University.
“(South Mountain College) was always going to be small, but in recent years the student enroll­ment has declined,” said Nandini Deo, an assistant professor of political science. “This is part­ly because of economic anxieties, which push students away from risky intellectual exploration and towards the more conventional
a summary of what has been accom­plished over the year.
“The dean review is not about giving the dean an overall grade,” Farrell said. “It is more about where we can begin to understand how to start doing things differently.”
Farrell is in charge of forming the committee. His typical committee structure contains four or five profes­sors from the college of the dean, at least one or two staff members and a faculty member from another college that will head the committee. Dean Hall’s committee includes: Stephen Pessiki, a professor of structural engi­neering; Allison Gulati, the associ­ate dean and director of strategic initiatives; Marilyn Jones, associate professor of design; Ken Kodama, a professor in the department of earth and environmental sciences; Jack Lule, the journalism depart­ment chair; Pam Pepper, a professor in the department of theatre; Vicki Ruggiero, the administrative secre­tary in the department of biological sciences; Vassie Ware, professor of molecular biology; Edward Whitley, an associate professor of English; and Pat Mann, the administrative direc­tor for the office of the provost and vice president for academic affairs.
“The review is a really good prac­tice Lehigh has put into place,” Lule said. “The idea is to provide feedback to the dean. It is not a review of judg­ment of the dean’s performance, it more says how things are going, and what we can get done.”
The goal of the committee mem­bers is to reach out to all members of the Lehigh community that interact with the dean. That includes other deans, faculty, department chairs, staff, graduate and undergraduate students, alumni and the advance­ment office. Hall has been at Lehigh for almost four years. He began in the summer of 2011 after leaving his position as chair of the department of English at West Virginia University.
Hall said he feels the review pro­cess is a wonderful opportunity for improvement. In his opinion, it is great that every three or four years, the administration gets to chat with those around them and across cam­pus about what is going great, and what can be better.
“I want to work in the best way I can to advance the college and meet the needs of the university,” Hall said. “The review committee has some people inside the college and outside the college, the system is set up to give a good broad view of how I am doing.”
Zhuojun Xiao/B&W Staff
Donald E. Hall, the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, talks with his secretary Wednesday in Maginnes Hall. He is being reviewed by a faculty committee, which evaluates deans every three years.
By LEXI MARTINS
B&W Staff
Dean Donald Hall undergoes required review
See DEAN HALL Page 2
credentialing process.”
Deo also said the lack of long-term support for the program made it very difficult for it to sur­vive on faculty effort alone. Being a part of the program has been enormously rewarding and she hopes that they can find a way to keep South Mountain College alive at Lehigh.
“As someone who has been a part of this program for most of my Lehigh career, I am sad to see it go,” Hillary Engelman, ’15, said. “I feel that Lehigh is an institution very much focused on engineering and business, and that it’s a shame for a great pro­gram with emphasis on human­ities and interdisciplinary studies has gotten cut.”
Engelman also said there have been efforts from students and fac­ulty to transition South Mountain College into a campus club, where the kind of people that South Mountain College attracts can get together, have conversations and keep the South Mountain College spirit alive.
The Arabic language program has also suffered from low enroll­ment numbers and a lack of sup­port. As a result, the program is in danger of being cut.
Arabic is not available as a major at Lehigh. However, the language can fulfill several requirements, such as the language requirement for Global Studies majors.
“I believe that the Arabic pro­gram is in danger here at Lehigh because enrollment is falling,” said Helen Ard, ’17, who is tak­ing Arabic to fulfill the Global Studies language requirement. “There is no minor, and profes­sors would rather leave than stay at a university where a program is not being advanced.”
Ard said she is passionate about INSIDE | Relay for Life raised over $70,000 on Friday. Students partic­ipated in everything from shaving heads to decorating cupcakes.
Relay for Life
See page 3
Low enrollment puts programs in danger
See PROGRAMS Page 3
By ZARA RUSTOMJI
B&W Staff