Dear students, faculty members, and friends,

This is my final In Focus address. And if you attended my virtual conversation last Thursday, it might seem like my second final address. For those who weren’t with us, I recently had an online discussion with University Life Trustee Gail Lione ’71; Brian Mitchell ’81 (PhD), a member of the Arts, Sciences & Engineering National Council; and Pedro Vallejo Ramirez ’16, a member of the Dean’s Advisory Network for the School of Arts & Sciences.

Over the course of an hour, I discussed pressing issues, including artificial intelligence and ChatGPT and the state of higher education and student access to it. I was also asked about my time as dean, and I’d like to share some excerpts from my reflections.

Going from the lab and teaching to serving as dean

“I was incredibly lucky, because I was asked to be interim dean. Some people say, ‘That’s a thankless job. Why would you ever do it?’ And I viewed it as incredibly lucky. Because I could put my toe in the water and think about what being dean was without jumping off the end of the dock. And that experience—to sort of try out the job, see what it was like, get deeper into what it meant to be a dean—I think is the only reason I became the dean. I don’t think I would have gone from department chair to applying for a deanship if I hadn’t had that time to try it out.”

Greatest fear about becoming dean

“I think for me the biggest fear was that I wouldn’t know enough or have enough information to make informed decisions about these very disparate areas of the school… But that’s part of what I loved about the job. I got to learn and spend time—I really feel like I know so much more about the University now, and I know so much more about my colleagues’ disciplines. It was a fear, but it was also an opportunity.”

What did you like the least?

“What I’ve liked the least is having to deal with these—I’ll call them external issues that take the time away from doing what the school should be doing, and forced the focus to more managing and survival.”

What has brought you the most joy?

“The interactions I’ve been able to have with alumni, students, and faculty have been the most exciting and really formative part of this job. I define myself as an ‘extroverted introvert.’ And I think that this time with those individuals and learning about their ideas, their thinking, what brought them to U of R, and what connects them has been hugely important.

“That also spills into another thing that I loved as department chair and got to do a lot more of as dean, and that is hiring faculty. Interviewing faculty candidates, you get these people who have amazing, fresh, exciting ideas. They’re interested in pedagogy and their research. And I want to hire everyone that steps in my office, right? We can’t do that. But I love those conversations.”

What are you looking forward to?

“I really am looking forward to being a faculty member at the U of R because I don’t really feel like I had that experience. It was two-ish years from when I started here to when I became chair…. When I moved here with my research lab, I also had a two-year-old; it was a little chaotic. So I’m really looking forward to actually being part of the faculty… This job, as dean, has given me so many ideas and places to springboard from. There’s almost nothing I’m not excited about. I am a little bit terrified that I actually haven’t managed my own calendar for 10 years.”

I encourage you to check out the entire conversation, which is available on YouTube.

If you didn’t attend the webinar, one of the most important things you missed was me saying thank you. It’s the people—the students, faculty, and staff—who have made this job amazing. I could not be more grateful to Rochester for giving me the opportunity to lead this school. And it’s not the kind of job you do alone. I’m thankful to everyone in the School of Arts & Sciences community who has helped me along the way.

During my time as dean, I spent a lot of my time looking at the University from an elevated perspective or intensely focused on a specific issue. Yet I would often be pulled back to Earth by simply looking out my window. I would see people heading to their respective appointments or classes. I would see tours go by. Sometimes I would even see classes being held outside. In those moments, I felt the energy on campus and appreciated it as a living thing. Academia wasn’t just whatever happened to be on my desk; it was all around me.

As I look out my window now, I see a time of changes, celebrations, and new possibilities.

See you again soon.

Gloria Culver
Dean
School of Arts & Sciences