Dean for Undergraduate Education Daniel Hastings has named Professor Diana Henderson the dean for curriculum and faculty.
In that role she will serve as director of the new Office of Faculty Support.
Henderson is a literature professor in the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. Her research interests include gender studies, Shakespeare, early modern culture, modernism and world drama.
In 2005, she was awarded the 2005 Everett Moore Baker Memorial Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.
In announcing her appointment, Hastings pointed out that Henderson "has been an active and strong participant during the deliberations of the Task Force on the Undergraduate Education Commons, playing an especially key role in developing the vision for the proposed new requirements."
The task force, made up of faculty, staff and students, has spent the past two years reviewing the common educational experience of MIT undergraduates--including the General Institute Requirements. The task force is expected to report its results to the president this fall, at which point recommendations will be discussed by the full faculty.
Henderson's apppointment is the latest in a series of changes in the Office of the Dean for Undergraduate Education (DUE).
This summer, Hastings announced a major reorganization and senior personnel changes that mark the culmination of a six-month strategic planning effort within the DUE.
Two new offices were established within DUE--the Office of Experiential Learning and the Office of Faculty Support. The existing Office of Academic Services and Special Projects Office were both dissolved. Additionally, the existing Academic Resource Center was to become the Office of Undergraduate Advising and Academic Programming sometime this month.
The planning effort also identified six key strategic themes for DUE: catalyze the undergraduate commons; champion information technology for the provision of information to the students and faculty; develop a holistic student experience; provide global educational opportunities that enable MIT students to appreciate and learn from other cultures; advance from teaching to learning in MIT's classrooms; and champion and increase pipeline diversity.
For more detailed information about the DUE changes, visit web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2006/due-reorg.html.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on October 18, 2006 (download PDF).
