As this is a special issue of The Educator, dedicated to our newly implemented General Education program, we thought it would make a little sense to talk about what my role in it is.
While I started out at Castleton as a professor in the Math Department in August 2014, in June 2020 I was asked to step into the role of Acting Associate Academic Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. I accepted and found myself on a fairly steep learning curve in the middle of some extraordinary circumstances.
But that’s what loyalty to your school does to you, right? When you are asked to help, you say yes. So that’s how I found myself learning what it is that the Academic Deans actually do while facing the chaos caused by COVID.
It turns out that Academic Deans (even if they’re only acting associates) play several important roles in our academic efforts. In particular, there are a variety of academic programs that need to be overseen: Honors, Civic Engagement, and more! Just as FYS had a dean to help coordinate it, so too should Connections Seminar 1 (CNX1): Creating Connections.
It turns out that I joined the deanery at just the right time then: the pilot had completed, the planning was underway, and I had the good fortune to have taught in the FYS program so I had some idea of what the program could entail. Thus, it was a natural choice to assign me as the dean that would help coordinate CNX1. (This would also reduce some of the workload faced by Dean Cathy Kozlik who was at the helm as the sole academic dean prior to me stepping up.)
So what exactly is my role?
It’s a work in progress! It’s important that this program, created by the faculty, remains controlled by the faculty. So Phil Whitman and I have been working together to define which actions and activities fall in the dean’s purview and which should be kept by the faculty. In the steering committee meetings I’ve been known to ask “How can I help?” and “What do you need me to use my dean-ly powers to do?”
In order for this program to be successful, the faculty in charge of Connections need to be supported by the administration. From my perspective, this means buying into the vision and providing resources to run it. I believe it also means being a champion for the program. When questions or issues arise regarding the Connections seminars (or any part of the general education program for that matter), I stand by the program requirements and emphasize its goals and how it contributes to our students’ liberal arts education.
Looking at the bigger picture though, there’s space for this supporting, coordinator role of the dean to grow. For now I’ve been doing a lot stipend requesting and artifact (such as course proposals and curriculum plans) collecting. But as the general education program continues to role out, there will be many more opportunities for a dean to provide a common link between the three Connections seminars to ensure they build upon one another. There is also likely a role for me to play in the eventual assessment of the program and how well it’s meeting its goals.
For now though I’ll continue to support the instructors of CNX1 and elicit feedback on the ways I can further assist as we continue to roll out the gen ed program in order to refine and define the role of the dean in Connections.
