University Times

Faculty of Arts and Sci- ences (FAS) Dean Pe- ter Koehler has appointed three new associate deans as part of an ongoing restructuring of the arts and sciences administration.

They replace former College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) Dean Mary Briscoe and FAS Graduate Studies Dean Mary Louise Soffa, who have resigned to return to teaching and research.

Koehler announced this week that he, too, plans to step down as a dean to take on full-time faculty duties, although his resignation won't take effect until 1998. (See story on page 6.) The new associate deans, all of them FAS professors, will begin their new duties Sept. 1. They have been appointed to three-year terms, although Koehler acknowledged that those terms could be cut short by his successor.

"Theoretically," Koehler said, "a new dean of arts and sciences could replace them [the associate deans] on day one, when he or she takes over as dean two years from now. Any associate dean serves at the pleasure of the dean. There's never a guarantee that any administrator will serve until the end of a multiple-year appointment." But Koehler said he considers it "highly unlikely" that a new dean will want to dismiss what will by then be an experienced administrative team.

In addition to the three new associate deans, Koehler's team also will include two current members of his staff, who will continue under the restructuring: Dick Howe, associate dean for Administration, and Carla Gary, associate dean for Affirmative Action.

Howe will continue to oversee arts and sciences budgets and physical space. Gary will assist arts and sciences units in meeting affirmative action goals for faculty, staff and students.

The FAS Council, an elected group of faculty and student representatives, unanimously endorsed Koehler's appointments Aug. 1.

The new associate deans are: * David Brumble, associate dean for Undergraduate Studies. He will oversee undergraduate studies in the arts and sciences, including activities to improve the quality of, and rewards for, teaching.

Brumble earned his Ph.D. in English at the University of Nebraska in 1970. That same year, he joined Pitt's English department as an assistant professor. Now a full professor of English, Brumble has devoted much of his scholarship to Native American matters, publishing two books on American Indian autobiography. His other interests include art history, foreign languages, theatre arts, linguistics, religious studies and classics. (He recently finished writing a book on Medieval and Renaissance uses of classical mythology.) Brumble won a Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching Award in 1987. He has been chair of the English department's curriculum committee (1977-79), director and associate director of the department's composition program (1979-81), interim director of the University Library System (1988-89) and academic dean of the fall 1989 and fall 1992 Semester at Sea voyages.

* Kathleen DeWalt, associate dean for Graduate Studies and Research. Her duties will include overseeing activities to promote faculty research and to certify and evaluate graduate programs.

DeWalt received her Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Connecticut in 1979. She came to Pitt in 1993 as a professor of anthropology, and currently chairs the department. She will step down as chairperson Aug. 31 to assume her new post. Anthropology faculty plan to recommend a new chairperson for Dean Koehler's approval in early September.

Trained as a general medical anthropologist with a specialization in nutritional anthropology, DeWalt has pursued two main lines of inquiry in her research: social, cultural, economic and ecological factors associated with under-nutrition in Latin America, and dietary behavior in the rural United States. DeWalt was president of the national Council on Nutritional Anthropology from 1986 to 1988, and served from 1987 to 1989 and from 1990 to 1993 as director of graduate studies in the Department of Behavioral Science at the University of Kentucky, where she was a faculty member from 1978 to 1993.

* Frank Giarratani, associate dean for Faculty Affairs, will be responsible for faculty hiring, promotion, tenure, leave and retention in the arts and sciences.

Giarratani earned his Ph.D. in economics from West Virginia University in 1975. He joined Pitt's economics department in 1979, following two years on the Georgetown University faculty. His research has mainly dealt with regional and urban economics and regional economic modeling. A full professor, Giarratani has chaired Pitt's economics department since 1992. After he resigns as chairperson Aug. 31, Herb Chesler will serve for one year as interim chairperson while the department seeks a new, permanent chair.

Giarratani has served on the Provost's Advisory Committee on Undergraduate Programs since 1995 and on the Provost's Ad Hoc Committee on the Restructuring of the Arts and Sciences.

It was the latter committee that recommended reconfig-uring Pitt's arts and sciences units under one dean, who is ultimately responsible for graduate and undergraduate programs as well as budgets and personnel matters within the arts and sciences.

For two decades, Pitt has had three arts and sciences deans: a dean of FAS graduate studies, a CAS dean for undergraduate studies, and an FAS dean responsible for the FAS budget and personnel actions involving arts and sciences faculty.

After CAS Dean Briscoe and FAS Graduate Studies Dean Soffa announced last year that they would be resigning their posts to return to faculty duties, Provost Maher appointed the Ad Hoc Committee on the Restructuring of the Arts and Sciences to address long-standing criticisms of Pitt's arts and sciences administration.

The committee issued its report to Maher in April. Two months later, Maher approved the ad hoc committee's recommendation of a new administrative structure involving one dean, serving with auxiliary deans who are faculty members.

What the new arts and sciences unit(s) will be called remains uncertain.

Maher, in a memo this summer to FAS and CAS personnel, referred to an overarching new "School of Arts and Sciences." But Koehler said he opposes that name because it would make the arts and sciences sound like a professional school.

The dean would prefer to retain the name College of Arts and Sciences to encompass undergraduate programs within an overall unit to be called The Arts and Sciences. One argument for retaining the CAS name is that so many Pitt alumni graduated with CAS degrees, Koehler said.

Provost Maher said, "At the moment, the FAS faculty are revising their bylaws. If they decide that they would like to call their unit The Arts and Sciences rather than the School of Arts and Sciences, I have no problem with that. Whatever name change they vote to approve, we [Pitt's senior administration] will implement it unless, for some reason, there is a real problem or conflict with what they're proposing. In that case, we would get back to the faculty to resolve any problems or questions." For now, Koehler's title remains dean of FAS.

— Bruce Steele