Dear students, faculty members, and friends,

The start of this month marked the beginning of my eighth year as dean. Normally, I wouldn’t think to mention the milestone, but this year already feels vastly different than the previous seven.

When you’re in a position for this length of time, you get used to certain rhythms (even more so when you’re in academia). The recent leadership changes at our school have created an entirely new rhythm. We have our new provost, David Figlio. We have a new Gabrellian Director of the Humanities Center, Peter Christensen. Joan Saab, executive vice provost of academic affairs, is currently serving as the interim dean of the faculty. And we have several new department chairs:

• Art and Art History
  • Allen Topolski
• Chemistry
  • Kara Bren
• History
  • Ruben Flores
• Modern Languages and Cultures
  • Ryan Predergast
• Psychology
  • Sheree Toth (for Fiscal Year 2023)
• Religion and Classics
  • Josh Dubler (for FY23)

The thought of all this change—and what it means—brought me back to my background in biology and the principles behind the state of quiescence, essentially a dormancy when faced with lack of nutrients or extremely challenging circumstances.

This seems like an appropriate analog for how the last two years has been for many of us.

But that was then.

I see us heading into a period of growth, or to stick with the analogy above, exiting quiescence. We’re equipped with two years of lessons taught by the pandemic, which have made us more agile, more creative, and more critically aware of what we’ve always done and what needs to be done. And the latter is where we will most benefit from our new leaders, who will bring fresh insights and different ways of thinking that will enable us to build and move forward.

I know this may sound odd or a bit optimistic for me but I’m excited about the fall. That being said, I’m glad there’s still a lot of summer left. I hope you are enjoying yours.

Gloria Culver
Dean
School of Arts & Sciences