Irene Blair joins John-Michael Rivera and Sarah Jackson as the college’s deans of division

The College of Arts and Sciences is pleased to announce that Irene Blair, professor and former chair of the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience and the Natural Sciences Divisional Council, has accepted the position of dean of natural sciences, effective March 25. She has held the position on an interim basis since August.

This marks an important milestone in the reorganization of the College of Arts and Sciences—that is, appointing permanent deans in the college’s three divisions—and fulfills recommendations made in the November 2018 report of the Provost’s Committee on Academic Reorganization to strengthen the authority of the divisions of natural sciences, social sciences and arts and humanities.

Blair joins John-Michael Rivera, dean of the division of arts and humanities, and Sarah Jackson, dean of the division of social sciences. The deans of division join College of Arts and Sciences Dean Glen Krutz in the council of deans, convened by the provost.

“During this time, I have been impressed with Irene’s leadership—how she effectively leads the division in advancing student success, increasing faculty and staff efficacy and strongly supporting research and teaching, and bringing our good work to the community,” Krutz says. “Also as interim dean, she has applied rigorous analysis as she has assessed the state of the division’s research, teaching and budget. I am sure she will only improve as an administrator, helping the division and college achieve even greater success.”

Blair joined the ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder faculty in 1995 after earning an MS, MPhil and PhD in social psychology from Yale University. Her research focus is stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination, and she works with several multidisciplinary groups to examine disparities in health care and health outcomes, funded most frequently by the National Institutes of Health. She has examined implicit racial and ethnic bias among healthcare clinicians and how those biases affect the delivery of care. She has also investigated the potential effects of discrimination on health in urban American Indians and Alaska Natives.

“There is still work to be done to complete the reorganization, but securing all three positions of leadership is significant,” Krutz says. “I look forward to having Irene continue to apply her considerable talents, skills and drive as she leads the division of natural sciences.”

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Hirings mark significant milestone in the reorganization of the College of Arts and Sciences, an initiative launched by the provost

In a significant milestone in the reorganization of the College of Arts and Sciences, Dean Glen Krutz has appointed two deans of division and one interim dean of division and has relaunched the search for the third. The deans of division join Krutz in the council of deans, convened by the provost.

The strengthening of the three divisions’ authority in the college fulfills recommendations made in the November 2018 report of the Provost’s Committee on Academic Reorganization.

The newly appointed deans of division are:

• John-Michael Rivera, dean of the division of arts and humanities
• Sarah Jackson, dean of the division of social sciences

The new interim dean is:

• Irene Blair, interim dean of the division of natural sciences

John-Michael Rivera, Sarah Jackson and Irene Blair (left to right).

Rivera has served with distinction in recent years as transitional dean for the division. He is a professor of English and humanities and the former director for the Program for Writing and Rhetoric at the University of ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder. Rivera began his new role May 1.

His first book, The Emergence of Mexican America, won the Thomas J. Lyon Best Book Award. His second book, UNDOŷ���ڱ���ƵMENTS, won the Kayden Award and Pope Award. He has edited, introduced and translated two books for the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project and has published widely in scholarship, essays, memoir, creative nonfiction and poetry. He was the curator of El Laboratorio, a literary space for Latinx writers, and co-creator of CrossBorders, an international collective of writers and artists engaging borders. He earned his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin.

Jackson, divisional dean for social sciences at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Arts and Sciences, will become the dean of division of social sciences here beginning on Aug. 1.

Jackson, who is a professor in the University of Cincinnati’s Department of Anthropology and has served as that department’s head, holds a PhD, MA and BA in anthropology from Harvard University. As divisional dean for social sciences at Cincinnati, she has shown a commitment to leading interdisciplinary initiatives that resulted in the formation of new schools and worked to apply existing administrative processes to the new schools. 

Blair's research focus is stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination, and she works with several multidisciplinary groups to examine disparities in health care and health outcomes, funded most frequently by the National Institutes of Health. She begins work in this new position Aug. 1. 

Blair has examined implicit racial and ethnic bias among healthcare clinicians and how those biases affect the delivery of care. She has also examined the potential effects of discrimination on health in urban American Indians and Alaska Natives. 

Blair joined the ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder faculty in 1995 after earning an MS, MPhil and PhD in social psychology from Yale University. 

Krutz has relaunched the search for the dean of the division of natural sciences, because the previous search did not result in a hire. Krutz will share more details about the search process within a few weeks. 

“I’d like to thank Dean Krutz for his hard work and thoughtful leadership in organizing appropriate searches and carrying out these key appointments,” said Provost Russell Moore. “I’d also like to welcome our two new deans of division and our interim dean welcoming the third to the College of Arts and Sciences and to the council of deans.”
 

Read more: Academic reorganization committee issues report, Nov. 12, 2018 | Provost Committee on Academic Reorganization

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Let us stand strong today and give future Buffs some broad shoulders on which to build a better ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ

These days are extraordinary. But they are not unprecedented. This is not the first time the University of ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder has weathered a pandemic caused by a virus.

On Sept. 21, 1918, the 1918 pandemic made its first reported appearance in ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ here, on our campus. On that day, 12 members of the Student Army Training Corps, whose members had come from a military base in Kansas, fell ill.

At the top of the page: Composite of 1870s building at the University of ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ at Boulder. Photo Illustration by Casey A. Cass/University of ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ. Above: James W.C. White

The student-soldiers were housed at the Armory Building—now home to ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder’s College of Media, Communication and Information—and trained on campus.

Within days, 75 ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder students were quarantined in the Alpha Tau Omega and Sigma Chi fraternities, which became makeshift hospitals, as did Woodbury Hall, then a men’s dorm. Also, Temporary Building 1, then ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ’s teaching hospital, became an infirmary for local flu victims. 

Nearly every medical student in Boulder performed medical relief work here or in communities where doctors were overwhelmed with the flu patients, the ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Board of Regents reported.

The Boulder Daily Camera regularly printed names of residents stricken with or killed by the flu. Within weeks, Boulder ordered a city-wide quarantine. The university shut down. The Camera printed large ads with tips on how to prevent influenza, featuring now-familiar suggestions like avoiding crowds and washing hands, local historian Silvia Pettem has reported.

Over the next 10 months, 649 Boulder residents were sickened and 119 died, ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ historian Stephen J. Leonard found. Nearly 8,000 Coloradans died. Our state was one of America’s hardest hit, perhaps partly because of its high altitude and high population of miners with pulmonary problems, researchers suggest.

Worldwide, the 1918 pandemic killed perhaps 50 million people of about 1.8 billion on the planet.

In 1918, students, staff members, professors and citizens arrayed themselves against an invisible enemy. They implemented quarantines, kept their distance from others, practiced better hygiene. Had they not done so, the death toll would have been higher. 

We know this because of research like a 2007 report in the that examined the social-distancing measures (quarantines, school closures, bans on public gatherings) implemented in several U.S. cities. 

 

Let us stand strong today and give future Buffs some broad shoulders on which to build a better ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ." 

Denver, like Boulder, sustained a lower death rate than cities like Pittsburgh, which delayed social distancing. The measures taken in 1918 worked as intended, and they foreshadowed those taken now.

This is worth recalling as our students and faculty take a crash course in remote learning and many staff members work from home. Today, we do not know how long strict social-distancing measures will last or how bad the novel coronavirus will get.

But we do know that when ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Buffs once traveled a similar road, the group banded together, did its best, and, together, prevented more deaths. That group emerged stronger and wiser. 

History (one of those liberal arts) teaches us that we always stand on the shoulders of those who came before. We do so today, even in this difficult and unusual time. Let us stand strong today and give future Buffs some broad shoulders on which to build a better ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ.  

Sincerely,

James W.C. White
Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences

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Excellent research fuels exceptional teaching, and vice versa

Classics Professor Elspeth Dusinberre’s students get a feel for Roman architecture, literally, by forming human arches; their locked fingers serve the same stabilizing function as the keystone of a Roman arch.

At the top of the page: Corrie Detweiler, professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, is shown in her lab at ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder, working on new ways to treat “superbugs,” antibiotic-resistant disease. On her right is Elspeth Dusinberre, professor of classics, helping a group of students get a literal feel for ancient architecture. ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder photos by Patrick Campbell. Above: James W.C. White

Physics Professor Noah Finkelstein leads his class through a dizzying tour of quantum mechanics, charging up and down aisles, punctuating key points with physics simulations, clicker quizzes and fist pumps.

Both Dusinberre and Finkelstein are University of ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ President’s Teaching Scholars and have amassed a string of other teaching awards. Both also have impressive lists of publications reflecting their scholarly work and research. 

Like our other tenured and tenure-track professors in the College of Arts and Sciences, they embody the fact that excellent research fuels exceptional teaching, and vice versa.

ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder is one of 131 “Research 1” institutions, a group of universities with the highest levels of research activity. Producing about 5,000 peer-reviewed publications, books, chapters and creative works annually, our college’s faculty expand the frontiers of knowledge. This, in turn, manifests our campus goals of leading and innovating.

 

Our job is to broaden and deepen human knowledge and to convey the ability to analyze and discuss it."

But that work is just part of the picture. Alumni sometimes ask me if there is tension between research and teaching. The implicit assumption is that one must take precedence over the other. But can we be excellent at both? 

The answer is a resounding “yes.” We can excel at both. And we do. While research is critically important to the university, so is teaching. Our faculty describe these activities as two sides of the same coin; they feed on each other and in turn fuel the motivation and success of our faculty and students.

That said, if I’m honest with myself and with you, there are times when research seems to overshadow teaching. Without denigrating research one iota, it is worth noting that the university of the future must take the educational lives of students ever more seriously. 

Dusinberre and Finkelstein are superb examples of our commitment to do just that. Those who dedicate themselves in equal measure to teaching and research or scholarly work not only reflect the needs of the students but also the mission of the university.

The four-campus University of ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ system’s mission is to show “leadership in high-quality education and professional training, public service, advancing research and knowledge, and state-of-the-art health care.”

ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder’s mission, grounded in state law, compels the university to be a consummate graduate research institution that offers “a comprehensive array of undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degree programs.”

Further, in 2020 and beyond, ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ Boulder pledges to “shape tomorrow’s leaders, be the top university for innovation, and to positively impact humanity.” And it vows to address “the humanitarian, social and technological challenges of the 21st century.” 

Pursuing all of these lofty goals requires both brilliant research and inspired teaching.

That’s because excellent research and teaching are synergistic. Our job is to broaden and deepen human knowledge and to convey the ability to analyze and discuss it. That idea is as stable and enduring as a fine Roman arch.

James W.C. White is interim dean of the College of Arts & Sciences.

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Next time you start to turn away from an opinion you find hard to hear, pause and listen; take a deep breath and test your critical-thinking skills 

The two newspapers on my desk—The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times—have won more than 150 Pulitzer prizes in total, and their journalistic bona fides are beyond dispute. 

James W.C. White

In some respects, the comparison ends there. If you follow current events or political controversies—and there are certainly many of both—you’ll find diametrically opposed views of those issues on the newspapers’ editorial pages.

Such diversity of opinion can strengthen you and also democracy.

But if you’re like most people, you gravitate toward one view or the other, seeking the editorial opinion of the Times or the Journal, but not both. That is a missed opportunity to learn and think critically, and understanding why is relevant to our mission at the university.

The Laws of the Regents, which govern the University of ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ system, clearly articulate this mission. Specifically, the laws state that every member of the university community, regents, administrators, faculty, staff and students have a duty to “.”

The regent laws continue:

The University of ŷ���ڱ���Ƶ is an institution of higher education, and its campuses are devoted to the pursuit of learning and the advancement of knowledge through the free exchange of ideas. The free exchange of ideas includes not only the right to speak, but the right to listen.

Citizens have a right to listen. We also a responsibility to listen, particularly to those with whom we disagree. Universities are where we learn how to listen most effectively—with discernment and reason.

A liberal-arts education conveys skills in critical thinking. Like any physical ability, critical-thinking skills must be used. When used, they strengthen. When neglected, they atrophy. 

 

A liberal-arts education conveys skills in critical thinking. Like any physical ability, critical-thinking skills must be used. When used, they strengthen. When neglected, they atrophy."

Honing one’s critical thinking is like training one’s muscles. If you challenge them with heavier weights, you get strong. If you consistently pick up only the lightest weights, you stay weak. 

This brings us back to the editorial pages. If you listen only to those opinions that confirm your own, you become the cognitive equivalent of a couch potato. Sure, the easy route is comfortable. But absorbing only those views that buttress yours perpetrates “confirmation bias,” which is the tendency to seek information or opinions that reinforce those you already hold. This yields feeble civic discourse, and flabby thinking.

People who live in echo chambers don’t discuss issues; they hurl prefabricated talking points at each other. They do not engage in the reasonable but “uninhibited, robust and wide-open debate” that, the U.S. Supreme Court famously said, fortifies our society. In thus shirking their civic duty, they weaken our democracy. 

Being a responsible citizen is hard. The world is complex. Evidence can point in multiple directions. Logic that might seem sound can be faulty when examined more critically. Reasonable people of good faith disagree.

If you feel the warm glow of concurrence with Times editorials and read only them, you fail to challenge yourself the way you should, as a scholar and a citizen entrusted with the health of our democracy. Pick up The Wall Street Journal, read it, and challenge yourself to think critically about why you disagree, or agree, with their opinions.

Some will demur, arguing that some speech should not be heard because some arguments are based on falsehoods. There has always been deficient and misleading speech, but the answer to bad speech is not suppression. The answer—as the Supreme Court also said—should be “more speech,” better speech, enlightened speech, which depends on critical thought.

These points reflect the First Amendment and our first principles. So next time you start to turn away from an opinion you find hard to hear, pause and listen. Take a deep breath and test your critical-thinking skills. You might emerge with your view unchanged. But you will be stronger, your thoughts clearer, and we’ll have a more perfect union.

James W.C. White is interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

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