Timeline
Creating and developing our new School of Arts and Sciences was an extensive undertaking requiring thoughtful community engagement, detailed planning, and careful implementation. This page serves as an archive of this work, starting with a charge to conceive a new Arts and Sciences in 2022 and progressing to implementation in early 2025.
History & Implementation
Implementation
A chronology of the steps taken as a community to make our new school a reality.
- Working Groups developed potential organizational and budget structures for the new A&S unit, informed by peer institutions and Dartmouth’s culture. Their work focused on assessing structures, reporting lines, tenure‑and‑promotion processes, offices serving undergraduate and graduate programs, financial implications, and resource needs for strategic investment.
- At the end of the fall term, the working groups recommended an initial “core” organizational and budget model for a single A&S entity, plus possible alternatives. Dartmouth senior leadership (Dean Smith, Provost Kotz, President Hanlon, and President‑Elect Beilock) reviewed the recommendation and asked the groups to investigate additional alternatives in winter 2023.
- Working Groups evaluated additional structural options, articulated potential modifications to faculty governance, assessed current faculty support, examined different reporting lines for Student Affairs and enrollment management, and discussed student‑advising models.
- The groups also discussed scenarios for how tuition and financial aid might flow to a new A&S entity.
- Building on these discussions and emerging priorities, senior leadership drafted a set of potential organizational and budget models. The models were evaluated through stress‑tests related to budget scenarios and alignment with the project’s guiding principles and objectives.
- Senior leadership solicited insights and feedback on potential models from the Board of Trustees, the Executive Committee, other Dartmouth leaders and stakeholders, and the working groups.
- During the remainder of the spring term, the working groups identified “open questions” about the potential models and suggested paths forward, all of which required further consideration.
- President Beilock established a project steering committee to lead the second phase, co‑chaired by Provost David Kotz and Professor Nina Pavcnik.
- The goals included answering organization‑ and budget‑related questions raised in the first year, finalizing proposed models, and expanding scope to consider implications for other units and opportunities for collaboration beyond the Dean of the Faculty and Student Affairs division.
- Task groups were created to advance potential organizational and budget models, with an emphasis on broad community engagement and iterative consultation with faculty, staff, and students.
- Task groups met regularly to address open questions raised by prior working groups.
- Steering Committee and Task Group representatives convened with faculty, staff, and other community members for feedback as they developed more refined organizational and budget models.
- After the final task‑group recommendation reports were submitted in late December, a draft proposal for a new A&S was initiated.
- The Steering Committee continued to meet with task groups, faculty‑governance committees, the Dean of Faculty, Thayer, Student‑Affairs leadership, staff, and other stakeholders.
- The goal was to incorporate subsequent feedback and share a draft proposal with the broader community by the end of March.
- Following the final task‑group recommendation reports submitted in December 2023, a detailed proposal for the new Arts and Sciences unit was created.
- The Steering Committee met with task groups, faculty‑governance committees, staff, and other key stakeholder groups throughout the winter to receive feedback and refine findings and recommendations.
- After incorporating this feedback, the proposal was shared with senior Dartmouth leaders and the President at the end of March 2024.
- Presentations and town‑hall meetings in April and May provided additional opportunities for community discussion.
- The FAS vote, originally scheduled for May, was delayed to the Fall A&S Faculty meeting at the request of the Faculty Coordinating Committee.
- After the proposal’s spring release, faculty committees submitted a response to the Steering Committee expressing concerns over budget, graduate school, and other operations.
- The Project Leads and Steering Committee responded to these memos and prepared addenda to the proposal.
- The Project Leads also convened several Task Groups to further map and review potential implementation efforts, focusing on an institutional registrar, undergraduate advising, business‑process continuity, graduate‑funding models, and A&S administration.
- Following the release of a revised proposal, Project Leads continued to meet with A&S faculty and other stakeholders in preparation for the A&S advisory vote slated for October 30 and the Board of Trustees vote in early November.
- On October 30, the Future of A&S Proposal passed on the faculty floor with almost 80 % approval (243 in favor, 63 against) and a 55 % turnout (out of 555 eligible voters).
- In her final recommendation to the Board of Trustees, the President considered the FAS deliberations, advisory vote, and comments from other schools.
- A positive Board of Trustees vote on November 7 paved the path for implementing a new School of Arts and Sciences.
- January – Nina Pavcnik, Economist and Neihaus Family Professor in International Studies, was named Interim Dean of Arts and Sciences after serving as Project Co‑Lead of the Future of Arts and Sciences project since 2023. In her role, Dean Pavcnik oversaw the implementation phase of the project.
- Dean Pavcnik’s first step was to create a new Implementation Committee, charged with determining, planning for, and executing implementation efforts. On the Committee, A&S and central leaders and representatives collaborated on strategic decision‑making that advanced implementation and mitigated cross‑functional risks. The Implementation Committee comprised representatives from the Dean’s Cabinet; Thayer; central HR, Finance, Facilities, and IT; and select faculty and staff (full membership available [here]).
- February – Dean Pavcnik convened the Implementation Committee for the first time to begin charting a path forward for establishing a new school of A&S. The Committee engaged in deep planning that accounted for both organizational (e.g., unit integration) and operational (e.g., HR support, finance support) transitions over the next year. Dean Pavcnik also launched a nomination process for the Interim Dean of Undergraduate Education, inviting faculty and staff to submit recommendations.
- March – The Interim DUE Selection Committee (see the Committees tab for members) convened to review applications and conduct applicant interviews, with an appointment anticipated for May. Dean Pavcnik announced the launch of a national search for the permanent Dean of Undergraduate Student Affairs, with further updates forthcoming. The Implementation Committee developed and continued to iterate on a high‑level implementation timeline. The Undergraduate Advising Task Group convened to design a new undergraduate advising model grounded in student excellence, building upon existing enthusiasm and momentum for change.
- May - Inaugural A&S leadership was announced: Scott Pauls, Professor of Mathematics and Director of the Dartmouth Center for Advanced Learning, was named Interim Dean of Undergraduate Education; Anne Hudak, Interim Dean of the College and Associate Dean for Student Support Services, was named Interim Dean of Undergraduate Student Affairs while the search for a permanent dean remained ongoing.
- The Undergraduate Advising Working Group held small‑group workshops to further identify advising‑model options, clarifying key components and sharing examples of considerations, constraints, and design needs.
- June - The Implementation Committee shared its approach to operational transitions (e.g., HR, finance) for the school with the Dartmouth community. A&S units were slated to transition in phases to minimize disruptions, following the order: Finance and Administration, Faculty, Undergraduate Education, and Undergraduate Student Affairs.
- July 1, 2025: Official launch of the School of Arts and Sciences.
- Operational transitions (e.g., HR, finance) began across A&S units that were transitioning into the school. A&S units transitioned in phases (Admin. & Ops., Faculty, Undergraduate Education, and Undergraduate Student Affairs) to minimize disruptions to day‑to‑day work as a result of back‑end updates.
- The Dean’s Cabinet, composed of A&S deans and functional leaders (e.g., Admin. & Ops., Admissions, Advancement), began convening. This leadership team continued the execution of implementation efforts, developed a day‑to‑day strategy, and provided oversight of the school.
- August - The Implementation Committee continued to meet to oversee and provide strategic input on implementation efforts across the school. Interim Dean of Undergraduate Education Scott Pauls worked with members of the Dartmouth community to design and confirm key elements of proposed models to enhance undergraduate advising; Dean Pauls also convened a Transfer Credit Working Group charged with redesigning and streamlining transfer‑student credit evaluation and adjustment processes at Dartmouth. Operational transitions moved smoothly into the second phase, which focused on the Dean of Faculty office and adjacent faculty systems.
- The school shifted its organization on July 1, and its organizational structure continued to be refined through Fall 2026. Transitions encompassed the creation of our school’s three major divisions: Division of Faculty, Division of Undergraduate Education, and Division of Undergraduate Student Affairs. Certain staff also transitioned into our A&S Office of Finance and Administration (OF&A), previously the A&S Finance Center. With this organizational transition, Dean Pavcnik began regularly convening the Dean of A&S cabinet. This leadership team, inclusive of the deans and leads of finance and operations, advancement, communications, and undergraduate admissions teams, is instrumental in continuing the execution of implementation as well as day-to-day strategy and oversight of our school.
- Meanwhile, shifts in operations (e.g., HR, finance support) were conducted through a phased approach by the school’s OF&A and divisions, starting Summer 2025 and continuing through the 2025-2026 academic year.
- In parallel to organizational and operational transitions, the Advising Task Group continued to design a new advising model, including vetting, testing, and implementation planning.