Wilson School reacts to dean’s departure

“Well, I never got a response, but I certainly found out why that was the case just a few days later,” Gao said in an email.

On Friday morning, Brown University announced that it had selected Paxson to succeed Ruth Simmons as its 19th president. Just as Paxson’s departure leaves Gao in flux, it also leaves the Wilson School in flux, given the recent overhaul of the undergraduate concentration that Paxson has overseen since being named dean in 2009.

In October 2010, Paxson charged a review committee to examine the entire undergraduate program. Six months later, the Wilson School announced it would end its policy of selective admission, a system the school has depended on since its founding in 1930. This past February, the Wilson School rolled out a number of major curriculum changes in the undergraduate program.

Paxson, who at the time of her appointment as dean noted that she would look at the Wilson’s School admission policy, will not see the results of her reforms to the undergraduate program first-hand. She will begin her presidency at Brown on July 1. Open admission — and most of the accompanying curricular changes — will take effect next spring, with the Class of 2015.

Despite the host of recent changes under her leadership, Wilson School professor Marta Tienda said the University made no effort to retain Paxson at Princeton to see the outcomes of the new policies.

“When we talk about someone who is catapulting from a dean to the presidency of a major institution, there was nothing that Princeton could do, or else that would be the University interfering with the career of a leader whose great skills can be deployed in many other places,” she said.

Tienda, who formerly served on the Corporation of Brown, the university’s governing body, added that she had a feeling that Brown might choose Paxson because she had been considered for administration positions in the past.

Paxson’s impending departure at a time of such critical change for the Wilson School raises questions as to whether the school will follow through with the initiatives which began under her tenure. President Shirley Tilghman said in an interview she thought the Wilson School would continue in its current direction.

“I feel that she will leave behind a great legacy, and the things she has championed will not lose momentum,” she said.

Tienda and Wilson School Vice Dean Stephen Kotkin shared her view.

“One of the advantages of her leadership style is that she got the consensus of the faculty, who all agreed to implement it, so in her time remaining, she just has to set the infrastructure and resources to fulfilling it,” Tienda said. “We can do that because she has laid the foundation for us, and the next dean will have it upon them to carry that forward.”

Kotkin said that Paxson’s changes will last, considering that they are in “the phase of consolidation.”

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The recent overhaul of the school makes the search for Paxson’s successor all the more crucial. Tilghman said a search committee to choose a new dean will be formed shortly, with the goal of choosing a new dean by the end of July. If a selection has not been made by then, Tilghman explained, the University will appoint an interim dean.

Tienda, however, said that the search for Paxson’s successor should not be the school’s top priority at the moment.

“Right now, we need to focus on supporting Dean Paxson for the rest of the time that she is the dean, and make sure everything she has started is institutionalized at the deepest level possible,” she said. “Our job is to focus on what she has already started, as part of our responsibility to the students in the undergraduate and graduate programs.”

John Monagle ’12, a member of the Wilson School Undergraduate Program Student Advisory Committee, said he hoped that Paxson’s leadership style and personality would be reflected in the selection of the search committee.

“It is impressive to have a dean who is so down-to-earth, and so in touch with the student body,” Monagle said. “I really hope that for the next dean as well.”

Senior writer Prerna Ramachandra contributed reporting.