Pollard named grad school dean

Thomas Pollard, a Sterling professor and the current chair of the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, was named dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at a ceremony in Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in May. He served as chair of the search committee charged with finding the new dean, and though the committee submitted a shortlist, many members of the committee wrote to University President Richard Levin separately during the final round of the search to recommend Pollard for the position.

Univ. hits $3 billion donation mark

Yale’s Office of Development celebrated a milestone this summer: The University’s fundraising campaign, Yale Tomorrow, hit the $3 billion mark in June, Vice President for Development Inge Reichenbach said.

With about $3.1 billion in hand, Reichenbach’s team now has 10 months to raise the $400 million needed to complete Yale Tomorrow’s goal of $3.5 billion by June 30, 2011. When the campaign is over, Reichenbach said, the University should have the funding for construction projects including the Yale Biology Building and the new School of Management campus — projects that are entirely funded through donations, as the University cannot afford to add them to its operating budget.

The $3 billion fundraising goal was originally set in September 2006. Reichenbach and University President Richard Levin later increased the goal to $3.5 billion to help to pay for construction projects.

—Vivian Yee

Univ. of Texas chancellor elected to Yale Corporation

Francisco Cigarroa ’79, chancellor of the University of Texas System and the first Latino to lead a major American university system, is the newest member of the Yale Corporation, the University’s highest governing body.

In an election this spring, Yale alumni chose Cigarroa from a ballot that also included Susanna Krentz ’80, a health care consultant and former Association of Yale Alumni chair, and David Singer ’84, co-founder and CEO of three biotech companies. Cigarroa, whose six-year term as an alumni fellow of the Corporation began July 1, worked as a surgeon before becoming chancellor of the UT system. He was a biology major in Calhoun College at Yale. Cigarroa replaces Margaret Marshall LAW ’76, who is the first female chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court.

The Corporation includes six alumni fellows, elected by Yale alumni for six-year terms, in addition to its 10 successor trustees, so named because the Corporation chooses their successors at the end of their six- to 12-year terms.

—Nora Caplan-Bricker

Latest tenure appointments announced

At a May 21 meeting of the Board of Permanent Officers of the University, a committee consisting of all tenured, full professors in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the board voted to promote the following faculty to tenure: Thad Dunning, to associate professor of political science; David Post, to associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology; and Sekhar Tatikonda, to associate professor of electrical engineering.

Christine Jacobs-Wagner was promoted to full professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology.

At a May 6 meeting of the BPO, Bonnie Fleming was promoted to tenure and named an associate professor of physics. Jack Harris was also promoted to tenure and named an associate professor of physics. Alicia Schmidt Camacho was promoted to full professor of American Studies, and Harrison Huibin Zhou was promoted to full professor of statistics.

—Lauren Rosenthal