The following announcement was sent to the campus community by President Joan Stewart on Monday, Feb. 22, at 12:15 p.m.
To: The Campus Community
It is with very mixed feelings that I write to say that Vice President and Dean of Faculty Joe Urgo has been named president of St. Mary’s College of Maryland, effective July 1. In assuming the St. Mary’s presidency, Joe returns to the public sector in which he served for six years at the University of Mississippi before coming to Hamilton. He will lead the State of Maryland’s public honors college, which takes as its mission the pursuit of the liberal arts.
Joe will be deeply missed at Hamilton. Since joining our community in July 2006, he has collaborated with his faculty colleagues to clarify tenure and promotion criteria, revise the Faculty Handbook, expand and define more clearly the responsibilities of department chairs, and strengthen the annual review process for Hamilton’s teacher-scholars. He also created the position of Associate Dean for Diversity Initiatives, led a year-long process resulting in a strategic plan being adopted by the Board of Trustees in January 2009, instituted faculty scholarship and creativity awards to complement the annual teaching awards, worked with Kirkland alumnae to further integrate their experiences into the history of the College, and served as acting president during my sabbatical last spring.
Joe accomplished all this with great patience, humor and integrity and with a clear sense of Hamilton’s purpose and goals. Working with him has been a pleasure and a privilege. The characteristics that made Joe so successful at Hamilton lead to this inevitable next step in his academic career. I am profoundly grateful for his strong and steady advocacy on behalf of the faculty he so ably represented and the College he served. I know he will enjoy great success at St. Mary’s.
We will recognize Joe and his wife Lesley’s contributions to Hamilton in the coming months. In the meantime, I invite you to extend your congratulations and best wishes.
J.H.S.
On March 2, President Stewart announced at a meeting of the faculty that Associate Dean of Faculty and Professor of Biology Patrick Reynolds has accepted an appointment as Interim Dean of Faculty for the 2010-11 year.
In an e-mail to the campus community the next morning, she wrote, "As you know, Patrick served as Acting Dean of Faculty during the Spring 2009 semester. Colleagues have expressed their confidence in Patrick’s abilities and judgment, in his professionalism, follow-through and sensitivity to faculty matters. In the coming weeks, I will communicate details about a search to fill the Dean of Faculty position. Meanwhile, I wish to express my gratitude to Patrick for his willingness to serve in an interim capacity. I look forward with great pleasure to working with him."
To: The Campus Community
It is with very mixed feelings that I write to say that Vice President and Dean of Faculty Joe Urgo has been named president of St. Mary’s College of Maryland, effective July 1. In assuming the St. Mary’s presidency, Joe returns to the public sector in which he served for six years at the University of Mississippi before coming to Hamilton. He will lead the State of Maryland’s public honors college, which takes as its mission the pursuit of the liberal arts.
Joe will be deeply missed at Hamilton. Since joining our community in July 2006, he has collaborated with his faculty colleagues to clarify tenure and promotion criteria, revise the Faculty Handbook, expand and define more clearly the responsibilities of department chairs, and strengthen the annual review process for Hamilton’s teacher-scholars. He also created the position of Associate Dean for Diversity Initiatives, led a year-long process resulting in a strategic plan being adopted by the Board of Trustees in January 2009, instituted faculty scholarship and creativity awards to complement the annual teaching awards, worked with Kirkland alumnae to further integrate their experiences into the history of the College, and served as acting president during my sabbatical last spring.
Joe accomplished all this with great patience, humor and integrity and with a clear sense of Hamilton’s purpose and goals. Working with him has been a pleasure and a privilege. The characteristics that made Joe so successful at Hamilton lead to this inevitable next step in his academic career. I am profoundly grateful for his strong and steady advocacy on behalf of the faculty he so ably represented and the College he served. I know he will enjoy great success at St. Mary’s.
We will recognize Joe and his wife Lesley’s contributions to Hamilton in the coming months. In the meantime, I invite you to extend your congratulations and best wishes.
J.H.S.
On March 2, President Stewart announced at a meeting of the faculty that Associate Dean of Faculty and Professor of Biology Patrick Reynolds has accepted an appointment as Interim Dean of Faculty for the 2010-11 year.
In an e-mail to the campus community the next morning, she wrote, "As you know, Patrick served as Acting Dean of Faculty during the Spring 2009 semester. Colleagues have expressed their confidence in Patrick’s abilities and judgment, in his professionalism, follow-through and sensitivity to faculty matters. In the coming weeks, I will communicate details about a search to fill the Dean of Faculty position. Meanwhile, I wish to express my gratitude to Patrick for his willingness to serve in an interim capacity. I look forward with great pleasure to working with him."
