In a Friday email to the campus community, University President Peter Salovey named members of the search committee that will recommend Yale College Dean Jonathan Holloway’s successor.
Enrique De La Cruz, professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry, will chair the 13-member committee, which includes Heads of Calhoun and Morse colleges, Julia Adams and Catherine Panter-Brick, and Dean of Silliman College Jessie Hill. Also on the committee are seven faculty members from across multiple departments, University Chaplain Sharon Kugler and Director of Administrative Affairs for the president Pilar Montalvo. Brandon Marks ’18 will also serve on the advisory group as the only student member.
According to Salovey’s email, the members of the committee will “consult broadly” with the Yale College community during the search process.
“They will seek to define the essential qualities, broadly speaking, of the next dean and collect recommendations for specific individuals who might serve in this capacity,” Salovey wrote. “The next dean will be an exceptional scholar with demonstrated commitment to the University’s educational mission.”
In addition to naming members of the search committee, Friday’s email explained that students, faculty and staff can now share their ideas regarding the next Yale College dean on the Office of the President’s website.
Bhart-Anjan Bhullar ’05, assistant professor of geology and geophysics and a member of the committee, told the News that a dean of Yale College should possess a rare blend of “vision, leadership and compassion.”
“The Yale College deanship is something special among all such positions the world over; Yale is uniquely focused on undergraduate education among great research universities, and the leadership of the College carries with it a peculiar dignity and significance,” Bhullar said. “I have always thought that the College deanship in particular requires an extraordinary person among extraordinary people. Fortunately, there is a pool of such people among whom to choose, people who love Yale as much as I do.”
Bhullar added that the next dean will need to have an understanding of the academic mission of Yale College, as well as a “finger on the pulse of the student body,” in terms of extracurricular activities and in terms of student life and opinion as a whole.
The President’s Office has not yet announced a date by which the next dean will be appointed.
Holloway — the first African-American to hold the position of dean and a former graduate student, professor and residential college head at Yale — will leave Yale in June to assume the position of provost at Northwestern University. He is departing three years into his first term.
In an interview with the News on Friday, Holloway said he was “thrilled” about the composition of the advisory committee.
“It’s a great committee,” Holloway said. “It represents Yale College in a really great way.”
Holloway previously told the News he is not at all involved in the search for his successor, but he speculated that the next dean of Yale College may be named shortly after spring break.
“A great dean of Yale College is someone who is comfortable in a public setting and is also comfortable being unpopular; that’s a tough load to carry,” Holloway said. “It’s going to take a special kind of person, who has the academic credentials, has strong people skills, really likes and is inspired by undergraduates and who is willing to jump both feet first into this really exciting and complicated position.”
Holloway begins his duties as provost at Northwestern University on July 1.
This article was updated to reflect the version that ran in print on Feb. 6.