September 8, 2014

TO THE CAMPUS COMMUNITY

Dear Colleagues:

As you know, Dr. David Marshall will be relinquishing his responsibility as Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts and assuming the position of Executive Vice Chancellor, effective September 15, 2014.

After consulting with Interim Executive Vice Chancellor Joel Michaelsen, Dean Marshall, and all of the department chairs in our Division of Humanities and Fine Arts, as well as with our Academic Senate, I have asked Associate Dean John Majewski to serve as Interim Dean, and I am very pleased that he has graciously agreed.

Professor Majewski joined the faculty of our UCSB History Department in 1995. Since then, he has held a number of leadership positions, including Chair of the History Department from 2009 to 2012 and Associate Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts for the last two years. He served on our Program Review Panel for five years, including three years as chair or co-chair, as well as the L&S Faculty Executive Committee and the Committee on Research.

Associate Dean Majewski has a doctorate from UCLA, where he won the Nevins Prize for the best dissertation in North American economic history awarded by the Economic History Association. His areas of specialization include United States history; American economic, social, and legal history; Southern history; and the United States Civil War. John won the Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award in 2003.

I am in the process of forming a search advisory committee so we can begin a national search for our next Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts. In the meantime, I am grateful to Dr. Majewski for agreeing to serve as Interim Dean. We thank him for assuming the responsibilities of this important role during this transitional period, and we know that his two decades of scholarship, leadership, and service on our campus will benefit us at this important time.

Finally, let me warmly thank Dean Marshall for his sixteen years of dedicated service and extraordinary leadership as our Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts.

Sincerely,

Henry T. Yang
Chancellor