An Update on My Retirement as Dean

Dear Advisory Council members,

I write to let you know that I will be stepping down as dean of the College of Fine Arts by the end of the 2020–2021 academic year. The provost will soon be making a public announcement, but I wanted you to hear from me directly. As I told you at the fall meeting, I plan to return to my long-deferred research and teaching interests after a long administrative career.

Serving as dean has been a great honor. It’s been the most gratifying good fortune to work alongside such a dedicated, smart and generous advisory council. My admiration for you is greater today than it was my first day as interim dean many years ago, and I admired you all enormously then.

We’ve been through a period of tremendous challenge, change and growth during the last ten years. I’m proud enough to believe that the college is among the very best public university arts colleges in the country, populist in our access, venerable in our traditions, but also admired for our progressiveness. I’m hugely optimistic about the college’s future as well as the future of arts education in this country.

The provost will be forming a search committee and launching a national search for the college’s next dean. In the meantime, there’s much still to be accomplished over the next year.

Excelsior!

Doug Dempster
Dean