The past year has seen a significant amount of turnover in the University administration. With those recent changes in mind, two newly appointed deans, Steven David, Vice Dean of Undergraduate Education and Kellee Tsai, Vice Dean of Humanities, shared their views on the responsibilities facing them.
Both are professors in the School of Arts and Sciences, David in political science and Tsai in East Asian Studies, and intend to continue teaching in some capacity despite their new positions. This semester, they are each teaching two classes.
Tsai added that she will still also be advising students on senior theses.
David explained a little about his tasks in undergraduate education.
“I’m in charge of academic affairs for undergraduates, and I’m involved with thinking about the undergraduate curriculum, majors and new initiatives, like freshman seminars, different ways of thinking about advising and studying abroad.”
Tsai said that she will be working closely with David on undergraduate programs in all departments, but added that “the other part of my portfolio is graduate education, such as working with the Graduate Representation Organization (GRO), and the other vice deans in engineering.”
She explained how she viewed the responsibilities facing her.
“I view my position as really working closely with the departments to help them achieve the objectives that they hope to achieve for themselves, but also in close leverage with the deans in the strategic planning process that will take place in the school.”
David mentioned a number of potential objectives for his tenure as dean.
“We’re looking at the pre-med curriculum. Katherine Newman has talked about intensive majors, students concentrating their studies in one area,” he said. “We are looking at the possibility of developing freshman seminars or small classes depending on majors.”
Speaking in broader terms, he said, “I see my job as being to improve the academic experience of the undergraduates, both in terms of enjoyment and what they learn. I do that and I’ve done my job.”
Tsai also described one way in which she is already working towards cooperation with all the school’s different departments.
“One thing I’m doing already is engaging in a listening tour, visiting each of the department chairs . . . to learn about the departments, to learn about their history . . . and what they anticipate moving forward . . . I’m educating myself and also introducing myself to them and trying to build a good relationship.”
David mentioned the importance of communication across departments as one of his foremost tasks.
“In terms of immediate accomplishments, first is talking to the director of undergraduate studies . . . and finding out from them what they consider their major concerns to be.”
He also discussed his desire to see more independent research conducted by Hopkins students.
“I would like a situation where every Hopkins student, before they graduated, had a really meaningful independent research project,” he said.
“This could be many different things depending on the field. It could be in the laboratory, it could be involving music or writing.”
He concluded by stating that, “Johns Hopkins is the first research university and my feeling has always been that research and creating knowledge should also be the problems of undergraduates.”
Dean Katherine Newman, of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences could not be reached for comment at the time of print.
—Additional reporting by Emily Nadelmann
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