Dean of the Faculty O'Shea States Hopes and Priorities

We have an astonishing faculty compared to other places, yet there are lots of ways we could be better," says new Dean of the Faculty Donal O'Shea. He spoke recently about his priorities and hopes for this academic year.

"My goal is academic excellence, and I'd like to put intellectual and academic things at the forefront of the College. The College is pulled in lots of different directions, but one major strength is the intellectual vitality of our curriculum and our faculty," O'Shea said. To make it even stronger, he wants to "clear out the bureaucracy that can grow up, especially in times of constrained resources. I want to protect faculty time and channel it into projects that are really worthwhile. And I'd like to see both faculty and students have more time to think."

He also hopes to have the College work on getting more resources for faculty initiatives. "The best way to have ideas bubbling up from the faculty is to provide the time and financial resources to allow that to happen," he noted.

Another priority, which O'Shea admits is a much harder issue to resolve, is that "we have tons of programs and departments because people are interested in so many things. I'd like to simplify this to lower our overhead and make it easier to administer."

O'Shea, who is Elizabeth T. Kennan Professor of Mathematics, will not teach during his first year as dean. In addition to his many duties as dean, however, O'Shea plans to stay current in his academic field by attending research seminars as often as his schedule allows.

"Mount Holyoke faces the same challenges that lots of liberal arts colleges face, but liberal arts institutions have a huge role to play in the world because we really care about teaching," he said. "The twenty or so colleges with a significant commitment to both scholarship and teaching have a special role to play. These are the places where the major intellectual achievements of our time first make it into the undergraduate curriculum. And there are a mere handful of liberal arts colleges where that happens with scholarship of the caliber offered by Mount Holyoke faculty."