Dean of Columbia College - Revision history

Pacman at 00:23, 7 May 2024

2024-05-07T00:23:41Z

Pacman: /* List of Deans of Columbia College */

2024-05-07T00:16:47Z

‎List of Deans of Columbia College

Absentminded at 06:02, 24 September 2018

2018-09-24T06:02:40Z

Absentminded: /* History of the Deanship */ fixed mis-typed internal links

2013-05-20T23:49:02Z

‎History of the Deanship: fixed mis-typed internal links

Absentminded: /* List of Acting Deans */

2013-05-16T23:37:05Z

‎List of Acting Deans

Absentminded: /* List of Acting Deans */

2013-05-16T23:35:59Z

‎List of Acting Deans

Admin: /* History of the Deanship */

2013-05-16T19:30:59Z

‎History of the Deanship

Pacman: /* History of the Deanship */

2013-05-16T05:10:04Z

‎History of the Deanship

Pacman: /* History of the Deanship */

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‎History of the Deanship

Absentminded: /* History of the Deanship */

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‎History of the Deanship

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 The College is a sub-unit of the [[Faculty of Arts and Sciences]]. As such, the Dean reports to the [[Nicholas Dirks|Vice President for Arts and Sciences]], who in turn reports to the [[Provost]]. The Dean of Columbia College therefore has more limited powers than his or her counterpart, the Dean of [[SEAS]].
-The current Dean of Columbia College is [[James Valentini]], who took over as the sixteenth Dean of Columbia College in [[2011]], after [[Michele Moody-Adams]] resigned.  Dean Valentini is also the Vice-President for Undergraduate Student Life and is a full member of the [[University Senate]] as well as the [[Columbia College Alumni Association]].
+The current Dean of Columbia College is [[Josef Sorett]], who took over as the seventeenth Dean of Columbia College in [[2022]], after [[James Valentini]].
 == History of the Deanship ==

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 * [[Michele M. Moody-Adams]]
 * [[James Valentini]]
 ===List of Acting Deans===
 * [[John Howard Van Amringe]]

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 == List of Deans of Columbia College ==
-* [[John Howard Van Amringe]]
+* [[Henry Drisler]] (as Dean of the School of the Arts 1890-1894)
 * [[Frederick Paul Keppel]]
 * [[Herbert E. Hawkes]]

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 The Deanship of the College was established for the first time in [[1890]] as part of a reorganization of the university, and long-time classics professor [[Henry Drisler]] was selected to hold this position with the title of Dean of the School of Arts. In [[1894]], [[John Howard Van Amringe]] was elected as Drisler's successor, and in [[1896]] his title became "Dean of Columbia College" when the [[Trustees]] voted to rename the School of Arts "Columbia College," at the same time that they renamed the entire school "Columbia University."
-This confusing line of succession arises from the confusing history of the period when the undergraduate arts and sciences division of the institution had not yet inherited the title "Columbia College". For most of Columbia's first century of existence, Columbia the institution and Columbia the undergraduate school were one and the same, and so the President of Columbia was necessarily (and, really, only) the head of an undergraduate liberal arts college. Between [[1860]] and [[1890]], that changed with the opening of the [[SEAS|School of Mines]], the [[GSAPP|School of Architecture]], the conversion of the College's "law department" into the [[School of Law]], and the foundation of a [[Graduate School of Arts and Sciences|Graduate School]], and the re-affiliation of the [[College of Physicians and Surgeons]]. Columbia became a university in all but name (as [[Dartmouth College]] remains today). In order to distinguish the undergraduate arts and sciences division within Columbia College, this division was first given its own title, the "School of Letters and Science" in [[1865]]-[[1866]]. It's unclear at what exact point the [[President of Columbia University|President of Columbia College]] began delegating control of the undergraduate division to others prior to the formal establishment of a deanship. At some point a [[Board of the College]], a body consisting the the [[President of Columbia|President of Columbia University]], and all professors in a "sub-graduate" course of instruction with the power to try student offences, determine student standing, adjudge awards and punishments, and prescribing a course of study, came into existence.
+This confusing line of succession arises from the confusing history of the period when the undergraduate arts and sciences division of the institution had not yet inherited the title "Columbia College". For most of Columbia's first century of existence, Columbia the institution and Columbia the undergraduate school were one and the same, and so the President of Columbia was necessarily (and, really, only) the head of an undergraduate liberal arts college. Between [[1860]] and [[1890]], that changed with the opening of the [[SEAS|School of Mines]], the [[GSAPP|School of Architecture]], the conversion of the College's "law department" into the [[School of Law]], and the foundation of a [[Graduate School of Arts and Sciences|Graduate School]], and the re-affiliation of the [[College of Physicians and Surgeons]]. Columbia became a university in all but name (as [[Dartmouth College]] remains today). In order to distinguish the undergraduate arts and sciences division within Columbia College, this division was first given its own title, the "School of Letters and Science" in [[1865]]-[[1866]]. It's unclear at what exact point the [[President of Columbia University|President of Columbia College]] began delegating control of the undergraduate division to others prior to the formal establishment of a deanship. At some point a [[Board of the College]], a body consisting the the [[President of Columbia University|President of Columbia]], and all professors in a "sub-graduate" course of instruction with the power to try student offences, determine student standing, adjudge awards and punishments, and prescribing a course of study, came into existence.
 In addition to the existence of the Board of the College, the restyling of the undergraduate liberal arts college as the "School of Letters and Science" coincided with the appointment of [[John Howard Van Amringe]], then only an Adjunct Professor of Mathematics, as the "Secretary of the Faculty of Arts" in the 1865-1866 school year.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=cjQbAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA72#v=onepage&q&f=false Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Columbia College 1865-1866] pgs. 6, 9-11</ref> [[1879]]-[[1880]] Van Amringe's title became the Secretary of the [[Board of the College]], and after the Deanship of the College was established, he acceded to the office of "Secretary of the School of Arts", which he resigned following his election as the second Dean. (He was succeeded by Professor [[Henry Peck]] in the office of Secretary.)
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 However, historical records point instead towards Henry Drisler. When Columbia reorganized its schools and faculties in [[1890]] and created the office of the Dean, Drisler was the first occupant of the office.<ref>See generally, [http://books.google.com/books?id=56zOAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA3-PA44#v=onepage&q&f=false Drisler Jubilee - Columbia University Bulletin, July 1894, Vol. 8]</ref> Similarly, the record makes clear that Van Amringe succeeded Drisler.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=56zOAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA6-PA4#v=onepage&f=false Notes from Board of Trustees Meeting of March 5, 1894 - Columbia University Bulletin, July 1894, Vol. 8, Pg. 4]</ref> Van Amringe did not change offices in [[1896]], but merely the precise wording of his title. This view is borne out in records such as the General Catalogue of Officers and Alumni of the University of [[1900]], printed 4 years after the name change, which provides only one list of College deans, beginning it with Drisler<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=ibkmAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA47#v=onepage&q&f=false]</ref>, or the [[Columbia Alumni News]] of February [[1911]], referring to Drisler as the "first Dean of Columbia College"<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=OErOAAAAMAAJ&lpg=PA309&dq=%22first%20dean%20of%20columbia%20college%22&pg=PA309#v=onepage&q=%22first%20dean%20of%20columbia%20college%22&f=false Columbia Alumni News] Vol. 2, 2 Feb 1911, pg 309</ref>, or the volume of the Bicentennial History of Columbia University dedicated to the history of the College, in which [[Lionel Trilling]] referred to Drisler as the "Dean of the College" and Van Amringe his successor.<ref>[http://archive.org/stream/historyofcolumbi012462mbp#page/n31/mode/2up A History of Columbia College on Morningside] pg. 14</ref>, or in a history of the Deanship published in the Spectator in 1967 which establishes similar facts. <ref>[http://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/columbia?a=d&d=cs19670210-01.2.26 The Deanship: 'New' Office in an Old College], Columbia Spectator, 10 Feb 1967</ref>
-The one argument in favor of honoring Van Amringe with the title is that he eventually became Dean of "Columbia College" while Drisler only served as Dean of the "School of Arts." Of course, using similar reasoning, all [[Presidents of Columbia University]] before [[Seth Low]] should not be counted, since the school only adopted that name in [[1896]]. Of course that would be nonsensical. It seems however at some point to have slipped into the preferred stylings of the Deans, as for example in a [[1962]] Spectator article which referred to Van Amringe as the "first Dean of Columbia College."<ref>[http://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/columbia?a=d&d=cs19620219-01.2.30 Van Amringe Wrote First Report], Columbia Spectator, 19 Feb 1962</ref> Similarly, in a timeline of Columbia 250 years, [[Columbia College Today]] noted that in [[1894]] "Mathematics Professor John Howard Van Amringe (Class of 1860) succeeds Henry Drisler as dean of the School of the Arts; in 1896, he becomes the first dean of the College." One final technical note in Van Amringe's favor is that he was elected to serve as acting dean during Drisler's absence towards the beginning of his tenure, if in fact it occurred at the very outset.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=MCQiAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA19#v=onepage&f=false Columbia University Bulletin, July 1890, Vol. 1, Pg. 19]</ref>
+The one argument in favor of honoring Van Amringe with the title is that he eventually became Dean of "Columbia College" while Drisler only served as Dean of the "School of Arts." Of course, using similar reasoning, all [[President of Columbia University|Presidents of Columbia University]] before [[Seth Low]] should not be counted, since the school only adopted that name in [[1896]]. Of course that would be nonsensical. It seems however at some point to have slipped into the preferred stylings of the Deans, as for example in a [[1962]] Spectator article which referred to Van Amringe as the "first Dean of Columbia College."<ref>[http://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/columbia?a=d&d=cs19620219-01.2.30 Van Amringe Wrote First Report], Columbia Spectator, 19 Feb 1962</ref> Similarly, in a timeline of Columbia 250 years, [[Columbia College Today]] noted that in [[1894]] "Mathematics Professor John Howard Van Amringe (Class of 1860) succeeds Henry Drisler as dean of the School of the Arts; in 1896, he becomes the first dean of the College." One final technical note in Van Amringe's favor is that he was elected to serve as acting dean during Drisler's absence towards the beginning of his tenure, if in fact it occurred at the very outset.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=MCQiAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA19#v=onepage&f=false Columbia University Bulletin, July 1890, Vol. 1, Pg. 19]</ref>
 == List of Deans of Columbia College ==

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 ===List of Acting Deans===
 * [[John Howard Van Amringe]]
 * [[John W. Alexander]]
 * [[Henry Coleman]]

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 == History of the Deanship ==
-The Deanship of the College was established for the first time in [[1890]] as part of a reorganization of the university, and long-time classics professor [[Henry Drisler]] was selected as the first Dean of the School of Arts. In [[1894]], [[John Howard Van Amringe]] was elected as Drisler's successor, and in [[1896]] his title became "Dean of Columbia College" when the [[Trustees]] voted to rename the School of Arts "Columbia College," at the same time that they renamed the entire school "Columbia University."
+The Deanship of the College was established for the first time in [[1890]] as part of a reorganization of the university, and long-time classics professor [[Henry Drisler]] was selected to hold this position with the title of Dean of the School of Arts. In [[1894]], [[John Howard Van Amringe]] was elected as Drisler's successor, and in [[1896]] his title became "Dean of Columbia College" when the [[Trustees]] voted to rename the School of Arts "Columbia College," at the same time that they renamed the entire school "Columbia University."
 This confusing line of succession arises from the confusing history of the period when the undergraduate arts and sciences division of the institution had not yet inherited the title "Columbia College". For most of Columbia's first century of existence, Columbia the institution and Columbia the undergraduate school were one and the same, and so the President of Columbia was necessarily (and, really, only) the head of an undergraduate liberal arts college. Between [[1860]] and [[1890]], that changed with the opening of the [[SEAS|School of Mines]], the [[GSAPP|School of Architecture]], the conversion of the College's "law department" into the [[School of Law]], and the foundation of a [[Graduate School of Arts and Sciences|Graduate School]], and the re-affiliation of the [[College of Physicians and Surgeons]]. Columbia became a university in all but name (as [[Darmouth College]] remains today). In order to distinguish the undergraduate arts and sciences division within Columbia College, this division was first given its own title, the "School of Letters and Science" in [[1865]]-[[1866]]. It's unclear at what exact point the [[President of Columbia University|President of Columbia College]] began delegating control of the undergraduate division to others prior to the formal establishment of a deanship. At some point a [[Board of the College]], a body consisting the the [[President of Columbia|President of Columbia University]], and all professors in a "sub-graduate" course of instruction with the power to try student offences, determine student standing, adjudge awards and punishments, and prescribing a course of study, came into existence.