June 30, 2016

Dear Members of our Campus Community:

I write to announce that Carl Gutiérrez-Jones, Associate Vice Chancellor and Dean of Undergraduate Education, has informed me that health concerns require him to step down from his position. He will begin a sabbatical leave and return to research and teaching, effective July 1, 2016. I am honored to take this opportunity to thank Dean Gutiérrez-Jones for his many contributions to our campus community. We will be consulting with our Academic Senate, faculty, and administrative colleagues to form a search advisory committee for a national search for our next Dean of Undergraduate Education in the College of Letters and Science and Associate Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Education.

Dr. Gutiérrez-Jones holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University, following his B.A. degree in English and American literature from Stanford University. He has been a professor in our Department of English since 1990 and holds affiliated appointments in Comparative Literature, Latin American and Iberian Studies, and Chicana and Chicano Studies. He has served as our AVC/Dean since January of this year, after having also served as the Interim Dean and Senior Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education. Under his leadership, Undergraduate Education has expanded its outstanding advising program for L&S undergraduates and developed new opportunities for undergraduate research and internships. He also enhanced our assessment programs; launched new initiatives to further foster student success, such as the Undergraduate Mentoring Program; and created the new Transfer Student Center. Thanks to his leadership, UC Santa Barbara was awarded a $2.6 million Title V grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program.

We are enormously grateful to Professor Gutiérrez-Jones. His service as Dean and Associate Vice Chancellor is but one of his many contributions to university service and governance. He was Chair of our Department of English from 2001 to 2004, and Chicano Studies Institute Director from 2005 to 2011. He has served on numerous committees, including the Academic Senate’s Committee on Academic Personnel, Committee on Education Policy and Academic Planning, and General Education Task Force. He also served on the Chancellor’s Year-Round Enrollment Committee and on multiple program advisory boards, both on campus and systemwide. We know that Carl will continue to serve our campus community in many ways.

Following consultation with EVC Marshall, Academic Senate Chair Bhavnani, and administrative and faculty colleagues, I am pleased to announce that Professor Linda Adler-Kassner and Professor Jeffrey Stopple have graciously agreed to serve as Interim Co-Deans of Undergraduate Education in the College of Letters and Science.

Professor Adler-Kassner received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in Mass Communication with a focus on Composition and Literacy. She was appointed as Professor and Director of our Writing Program in 2009 and served in that administrative role until 2015, when she became Associate Dean in Undergraduate Education. Prior to her appointment as Associate Dean, Dr. Adler-Kassner served as Vice Chair of the systemwide University Committee on Preparatory Education. She also has served as a faculty assessment liaison for our campus’s WASC accreditation process and is currently Co-Associate Assessment Liaison Officer and Chair of the UCSB Council on Assessment. As Associate Dean, she has worked on issues related to assessment, undergraduate research, teaching, and learning.

Professor Stopple holds a 1986 Ph.D. in Mathematics from UC San Diego. He has been on the faculty at UC Santa Barbara since 1987. In 1997 he was a Fulbright Scholar at Charles University, Prague. He has been Department Vice Chair and Chair, served for three years on the Committee on Academic Personnel, and was Associate Dean of the UC Education Abroad Program. He is currently Chair of the Undergraduate Council, serves on the UCEAP Governing Committee, and is one of our campus leads on UCOP’s Budget Framework Implementation Project.

Please join me in thanking Professors Adler-Kassner and Stopple for their willingness to take on this important role for our campus community. Please also join me in extending our sincere appreciation to Dean Gutiérrez-Jones for his superb contributions and dedication to our campus.

Sincerely,

Henry T. Yang
Chancellor