Dean, College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters

Company: University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Center
Location: Dearborn
Posted on: January 22, 2023

Job Description:

How to Apply

The University of Michigan-Dearborn has retained Isaacson, Miller, a national executive searchfirm, to assist in this recruitment. Review of candidates will begin immediately and continue untilthe position is filled. Nominations, inquiries, and applications, including a CV and letter of interest,should be sent in confidence to:

Jeff Kessner, Partner
Debbie Scheibler, Senior Associate
Lauren Wilkes, Senior Associate


The University of Michigan-Dearborn is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Educator andEmployer, is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive environment, and stronglyencourages applications from women, minorities, veterans, and individuals with disabilitiesregardless of age, gender identity, genetic information, religion, or sexual orientation.

Summary

The University of Michigan-Dearborn (the University or UM-Dearborn) seeks a dynamic, collaborative, and innovative dean of the College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters (the College or CASL) who can leverage its unique advantages to advance the Colleges academic scope, regional economic development, and educational impact. The next dean will join a strong senior leadership team in supporting this student-focused institution that is deeply committed to preparing students to have productive professional and personal lives, to be engaged and informed citizens, and to be contributors to the intellectual and civic rejuvenation of an important U.S. metropolitan region. This is an exciting moment as the next dean will have an opportunity to build on a solid foundation, advocate for the liberal arts and sciences, and lead a deeply committed faculty, a highly diverse and engaged student body, and an excellent staff to write the Colleges next chapter.

One of the three campuses of the University of Michigan, UM-Dearborn is a top ranked metropolitan university serving southeastern Michigan committed to excellence and rooted in strong academics, innovative research and programming, and civic engagement. With approximately 8,300 students, an outstanding faculty, and a beautiful 200+ acre campus near Detroit and Ann Arbor, UM-Dearborn provides a transformative education for the highly diverse populations in the region.

The College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters is a transformative and student-centered exploratory learning environment, regionally and globally focused, deeply grounded in the value of inclusiveness, and engaged with leading-edge research. It develops and empowers students to become future leaders who will guide the resurgence and renewal of southeastern Michigan and the world beyond. CASL offers three dozen undergraduate majors and select graduate programs that are housed in five interdisciplinary departments in addition to several college-wide units.

The dean is the chief academic and administrative officer of the College and reports to the provost. The dean oversees all academic programs and services within CASL and provides intellectual and academic leadership to the faculty in matters related to curriculum, research, student excellence, DEI, and faculty and staff development. The University has ambitious plans to increase research productivity and external funding while maintaining the highest levels of educational quality for students, and CASL has an important role in that effort. The dean will also be a visible face and force beyond the boundaries of the College, working with students, faculty, staff, alumni, other colleges on campus, and the community to enhance and build external relations and to raise funds.

The University of Michigan-Dearborn has retained the executive search firm Isaacson, Miller toassist in this search. All applications, inquiries, and nominations, which will remain confidential,should be directed to the search firm as indicated at the end of this document.

Who We Are

Established in 1959 with a gift from the Ford Motor Company and founded on the original HenryFord Estate, UM-Dearborn was forged in a community of working people with the global economyin mind. The University is committed to academic excellence, community engagement, andservice to southeastern Michigan. Over the past two decades, the institution has taken deliberateand successful steps to improve its academic profile and increase its recognition as it has evolvedfrom a regional commuter campus to a university with a full range of services for students. In the2023 edition of US News and World Report, the University of Michigan-Dearborn ranks as thetop public university in Michigan in its category and fifth overall among regional public universitiesin the Midwest. In 2020, UM-Dearborn was named a top producer of Fulbright U.S. Scholars.

UM-Dearborn is an engine of social mobility and is frequently included in US News and WorldReports list of Top Performers on Social Mobility as measured by enrollment and graduationrates of Pell Grant eligible students. Among Michigans 15 public universities, graduates of UM-Dearborn enjoy the second highest median annual earnings of students two years aftergraduation.

Today, UM-Dearborn is comprised of four academic units: the College of Arts, Sciences, andLetters; College of Business; College of Engineering and Computer Science; and College ofEducation, Health, and Human Services. Across these units, the University offers more than 100undergraduate majors and minors, and more than 40 graduate degree programs that includeflexible evening and online options as well as doctoral programs. Academic programs integrateteaching, research, and service in ways that enhance the learning experience for students,providing small class sizes and a dynamic environment that fosters innovation, openness, andcreativity.

The University provides a strong foundation in the liberal arts and sciences and the knowledgeand skills essential for career and personal success. Academic programs across the curriculumemphasize learning beyond the classroom. The institutions close ties to industry, the regionalcommunity, other educational institutions, and government agencies enable applied researchopportunities, undergraduate projects, meaningful internship and co-op experiences, studyabroad, student employment, and innovative courses and programs. In the last year, all four academic colleges at the institution have committed to Practice-Based Learning (PBL) acrosstheir curricula, with CASL leading in these efforts.

In recent years, departments across campus have adopted advanced technologies to meetchanging educational needs. The University has celebrated the opening of multiple new buildings,including the Natural Sciences Building, and various new labs. The applied nature of a UM-Dearborn education was on full display during the pandemic as these new facilities equippedstudents and faculty to join the fight against Covid-19 by producing PPE from home in 2020.

Academic Profile

The University of Michigan-Dearborn is a coeducational, masters-level, public university that ispart of the University of Michigan system and fully accredited by The Higher LearningCommission. Approximately 8,300 students are enrolled in about 100 academic programs andmajors within the four academic units.

The institutions educational mission is supported by over 300 full-time and more than 200 part-time faculty members. Faculty are both talented teachers and productive scholars who are first-rate and accessible, interacting closely with their students inside and outside the classroom. Withan average class size of 25 students and a student-faculty ratio of 16:1, UM-Dearborn providesits students with an unusual degree of personalized attention from high quality, experiencedfaculty. In addition to their excellence as teachers, many UM-Dearborn faculty are also topscholars in their fields.

Students and Student Life

The UM-Dearborn student population represents a broad array of racial, ethnic, cultural, socio-economic, and religious communities, creating a campus culture that is highly diverse acrossseveral dimensions. More than 60 percent of the 6,117 undergraduate students enter directlyfrom high school, and the remainder are students who have prior college experience eitherimmediately before entering the University or at a previous time in their lives and careers. Manyof the 1,982 graduate students are employed full-time in a related professional career. Ninety-four percent of students are Michigan residents and 91 percent of students who acceptedemployment in 2021 remained in Michigan following graduation. Students at UM-Dearbornrepresent 78 birth countries, and nearly one-third of the Universitys students identify as peopleof color. Forty-nine percent are first-generation college students and 44 percent are eligible forPell Grants. UM-Dearborn provides a variety of innovative programs to support its diverse studentpopulation and allow students of all backgrounds to be involved in the Universitys success.

The University is strongly committed to affordability for its students and awarded nearly $41 million in merit-based, four-year general fund grants and scholarships to incoming first-year students in the 2022-23 academic year. Merit-based scholarships are also available for community college transfer students. Eighty-eight percent of incoming students receive some form of financial aid to help them enroll in and graduate from college.

Students at UM-Dearborn are eligible for the Go Blue Guarantee, the University of Michiganslandmark promise of free tuition for high-achieving in-state undergraduate students from low-income backgrounds. The Guarantee offers free tuition for first-time, full-time in-state collegestudents with an incoming GPA of 3.5, family income of $65,000 or less, and assetsbelow$50,000.Transfer students meeting the same criteria are eligible for up to four semesters of freetuition. The Guarantee offers additional support for incoming students not meeting these criteria.

UM-Dearborn students engage in a variety of extracurricular activities to enhance their academiclives, including athletics, honorary societies, religious groups, fraternities and sororities, culturaland ethnic associations, recreational clubs, a student newspaper, and a radio station. With morethan 130 recognized clubs and organizations on campus, students have many opportunities toconnect with others who share similar interests and goals. The UM-Dearborn Wolverinescompete in mens and womens basketball, mens and womens hockey, mens baseball,womens volleyball, and womens softball. UM-Dearborn students attend their games as well assporting events at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

The University is committed to the community it serves. Every year, students, faculty, and staffdedicate tens of thousands of hours of community engagement through classes, research,student activities and events, as well as personal projects. UM-Dearborn specializes incommunity-engaged teaching and research, and its students are that are inthe forefront of their fields, improving the lives of others and making an impact on campus and inthe local communities. The Office of Metropolitan Impact (OMI) provides engagement support tofaculty, students, and community partners and hosts and sponsors a variety of community-basedevents to benefit faculty's engaged teaching and scholarship, in which they excel.

Leadership and Governance

Chancellor Domenico Grasso is the sixth chancellor of the University of Michigan-Dearborn andthe first Michigan graduate to lead the university. He also is an executive officer of the Universityof Michigan. Prior to joining UM-Dearborn in 2018, he was provost and chief academic officer atthe University of Delaware. Earlier in his career, he held posts as Smith Colleges RosemaryBradford Hewlett Professor and founding director of the Picker Engineering Program the firstengineering program at a womens college and one of the few at a liberal arts college in theUnited States. He is a former Army officer and earned his Ph.D. from Michigan in environmentalengineering.

Considered a leading thinker in the field, Grasso has published extensively in the areas ofenvironmental engineering and engineering educational reform. He has held numerous high-profile posts, including as advisor to NATO, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and theNational Academy of Engineering. Grasso also has a passion for holistic engineering educationand has reasoned for the importance of the social sciences, arts, and humanities in bettercontextualizing the relevance ofSTEMeducation.

Dr. Gabriella Scarlatta has served as UM-Dearborns provost and vice chancellor for academicaffairs since July 2022 after serving a year in the interim role. Prior tobecoming interim provost, Dr. Scarlatta served seven years as Associate Dean of the College of Arts, Sciences, and Lettersand the Director of the French Studies Program. Working with undergraduates and taking part innumerous university service activities, her long career at UM-Dearborn has been marked withdistinction. Provost Scarlatta joined UM-Dearborn in 1996 and was promoted to professor ofFrench, with tenure, in 2017. She has served as chair of the Department of Language, Culture,and Communication and co-chair of the Department of Humanities, has been a member of theCollege of Arts, Sciences, and Letters Executive and Curriculum Committees, and has servedon the Faculty Senate. She served as a faculty representative on the Lecturers' EmployeeOrganization university bargaining team in 2009, 2012, and 2017. She teaches French literatureand culture and has published several books and scholarly articles about the French and ItalianRenaissance and early women writers.

She received her B.A. and the Maitrise in Modern Languages from the Universite de Savoie,Chambery, France. She earned her M.A. in French and Italian Literatures and her Ph.D. inModern Languages from Wayne State University.

Shared Governance

The University of Michigan-Dearborn has a long tradition of strong shared governance within awell-established structure. The Faculty Senate acts as a critical conduit between faculty andadministration, communicating the facultys perspectives on all matters pertaining to the interestsof the University. In addition to the Faculty Senate, Executive Committees in each of the fourcolleges are empowered by the Board of Regents to act on behalf of the faculty in matters ofappointments, promotion and tenure, budgets, and curriculum.

Go Blueprint for Success

Shortly after arriving at UM-Dearborn, Chancellor Grasso led the institution through acomprehensive visioning exercise, resulting in a new strategic plan, Go Blueprint for Success,which was finalized in 2019. This strategic plan starts from the premise that UM-Dearborn holdsas a fundamental institutional tenet that a university must play an active role in addressing thechallenges its communities face. Currently, southeastern Michigan, the state of Michigan itself,and the industrial Midwest are facing new and difficult economic realities and related socialproblems like racial and ethnic divisions, urban environmental problems, and questions aroundthe future of manufacturing. In response to these issues, Go Blueprint for Success focuses onfour central priorities student experience and success; diversity, equity & inclusion; faculty &staff excellence; and economic sustainability that will contribute to the realization of UM-Dearborns ambitious institutional goals and help catalyze an economic and civic revival in theregion.

The University has set a goal of increasing its enrollment to 10,000 students in the comingdecade. In order to achieve this number, UM-Dearborn is committed to a vigorous recruitingstrategy, growth in undergraduate and graduate programs, and increased funding forscholarships, financial aid, and infrastructure. Engaging students in experiences beyond theclassroom will enable them to see the impact of their work in the local community and encourage them as young graduates to lend their talents to the needs of the region.The University is striving to expand student participation in internships, research projects, student life, and civicengagement opportunities to facilitate this local community engagement. Fundamental to allthese efforts is providing excellent academic programs, led by accomplished faculty. UM-Dearborn continues to be on the cutting edge of knowledge in the sciences, humanities, andprofessional disciplines, recruiting excellent and engaged scholars and teachers, engaging incontinuous assessment and improvement of its academic programs, and expanding curricularofferings to meet the evolving needs of its students.

THE COLLEGE OF ARTS, SCIENCES, AND LETTERS

The College is home to 36 undergraduate majors and a number of interdisciplinary fields,including environmental science and environmental studies, mathematics education, Arab-American studies, and health psychology. The College also offers two dual degrees with theCollege of Engineering and Computer Science, as well as masters level graduate programs incriminology and criminal justice, applied and computational mathematics, environmental science,psychology, and public administration and policy. With its rich array of majors and minors inaddition to certificate programs and an Honors program, the College of Arts, Sciences, and Lettersprepares citizens with a wide and critical perspective, a deep appreciation for humanitysachievements, and the creative bent necessary for tomorrows work.

Faculty and Academic Programs

The College has 266 faculty members, including 136 tenured and tenure-track faculty, and 130non-tenure track faculty who teach the 2,275 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled inthe College in addition to UM-Dearborn students across the other three colleges through generaleducation coursework. Faculty are committed teachers and scholars who believe strongly in thevalue and importance of liberal arts education and interdisciplinary academic pursuits. ThreeCASL faculty were awarded Fulbright Awards, one faculty member was named MichiganAssociation of State Universities (MASU) Professor of the Year for their outstanding contributionsto undergraduate education, and CASL faculty garnered three of the eight campus-level facultyawards granted in 2022: the Distinguished Research Team Award, the Distinguished TeachingAward, and the Collegiate Lecturer Award. The College hosts an annual Faculty Research Slam,highlighting faculty research achievements across departments and has been home to aResearch Experience for Undergraduates (REU) site since 2015.

The College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters has five interdisciplinary departments that reflect thefull range of the liberal arts and sciences, with related fields grouped together to facilitateinterdisciplinary teaching and research. Departments in the College include Behavioral Sciences;Language, Culture, and the Arts; Mathematics and Statistics; Natural Sciences; and SocialSciences. The College is also home to a number of interdisciplinary programs that bring togetherfaculty and students from different departments to study and respond to challenges of the region,nation, and planet. These college-wide programs include African and African American Studies,Arab American Studies, Behavioral and Biological Sciences, Criminology and Criminal JusticeStudies, and Womens and Gender Studies.

The College is home to several research centers that produce scholarship, sponsor lectures,workshops, and symposia, and engage in projects relevant to the Dearborn and

Keywords: University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Center, Dearborn , Dean, College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters, Other , Dearborn, Michigan