As the University College of Academic Success (UCAS) tries to find a new dean, right now they’re working from within. PHOTO CREDIT: Contributed by uri.edu
Nearly three months after the retirement of its former dean of 35 years, the University of Rhode Island’s University College of Academic Success (UCAS) has still not begun the search for a replacement.
According to Linda Moffat, the assistant dean of UCAS, in addition to the retirement of former Dean Jayne Richmond, the program lost its executive assistant to the dean at the end of last year as well.
Richmond held her position as dean for the past 35 years, according to Libutti, leaving “big shoes to fill” when searching for a replacement.
“It’s been only 3 months since Dean Richmond retired, and you don’t replace someone like that so quickly,” Libutti said. “In the grand scheme of things, we lost Dean Richmond, but UCAS took a step back and figured out that we could work within ourselves before finding a dean.”
According to Moffat, the search for a dean is not a small one. It is a national search that can take months to complete and a “tremendous amount of coordination,” according to Moffat.
She said that before UCAS starts its search for a new dean, they wanted to find an executive assistant first. UCAS has since found someone for the executive assistant position, which she said will be announced in the next few days.
“We wanted to launch a search for that position so that that person could help us look for a new dean,” Moffat said. “It was sort of a domino effect — we needed to find an assistant before we found a new dean.”
UCAS is the umbrella program for most new student and undergraduate programs at URI, such as academic advising, new student orientation and the Career Center for Experiential Education, according to Moffat. UCAS helps students create their schedules, get tutoring for classes when needed and find internships once the time comes.
Dean Libutti, who is the current interim dean for UCAS part-time, said that there has been “no rush” in the process to find a new dean. He said that the University College has been “booming” in the fall 2021 semester.
Despite not having a full-time dean, Libutti said that UCAS has been doing more collaboration than he’s seen in his 20 years working at the University.
“We’ve had job and internship fairs, tutoring, new student events and each of these has had fantastic turnouts,” Libutti said.
He said that the staff is working “harder than ever” on projects to help new students as much as possible. In the time since Richmond retired, UCAS has created a new program for freshman orientation over the summer, expanded the tutoring center to the lower level of the library and collaborated with multiple other offices on campus, such as the president’s office and the Counseling Center.
Moffat said that the employees in and under the University College are nervous, but excited for a new dean.
“We’re definitely anxious for new leadership since everyone had been so accustomed to the way that Dean Richmond ran things,” Moffat said. “However, we’re all looking forward to new leadership and having a full-time dean once again.”