Yesterday we saw the official “installation” of Howard Gillman the new Dean of the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. I find this term amusing in this context, as it sounds a bit like putting in a new lightbulb, or perhaps a new operating system (the latter is, I guess is closer to the truth). I sort of had to go since it represents the outcome of a lot of work I did last year on the search committee* that advised the Provost and President on their choices, and of course I have an interest in it as an ordinary faculty member of the College and of USC in general – The LAS is truly the core of USC, and we need the new Dean to do a good job of steering it forward in this (happily) continuing period USC’s steady and rapid progress on all fronts. So a good opening speech is seen as a good sign. It was good – much more than good actually – and everybody seemed to have genuinely good things to say afterwards (as we munched on the always excellent food served at these events – the other reason we go to them).
Right: Not the most representative photo (click to enlarge), but you can see him mid-speech, with President Sample seated listening. Assembled is a lot of the faculty, mostly seated. All the other Deans from all the other units were present, as well as various vice-Presidents and so forth. They all precessed into the room, and members of USC Thornton School of Music’s choir sang the USC song, which was… quite a bit more pomp and circumstance than I was expecting. What you can’t see is that the room is about twice as big as the part you can see, there’s lots of faculty standing around in that part, with several tables of very tasty food and wine for all.
For the record, the fact that I thought that it was a good speech has nothing to do with the fact that he actually mentioned that conversation of last week I mentioned in an earlier post – the one involving some friends and colleagues from the English department, myself, and him… The most promising thing of all, in my opinion, was the fact that he had at the core of his speech the idea of the value of seeking knowledge for its own sake. He did a very good exploration of the various uses of the word “wonder” to make his point rather nicely.
This is an excellent start.
-cvj
*I’m not betraying any secrets here – the committee’s membership is public knowledge.
Good to hear that you might know some of the people involved — that’s what I was hoping, more than you being familiar with other things. And thanks for the webiste, I’ve visited it before, which is why I thought to ask you some questions. I’ll explain in an email.
Thanks, Clifford!
Well, I’ve heard of it, and may even know some of the people involved. But I would not say I was “familiar” with it. Website here: http://stevens.usc.edu/
Let me know what you want to know, either here or by email.
Best,
-cvj
Glad it’s off to an excellent start!
Slightly off topic, but I’ve been meaning to ask you a question, and this post reminded me about it. Are you familiar with USC Stevens Institute for Innovation? If so, I’d love to ask you a few more questions about it. We can take this offline, of course, but I just thought I’d put the question out there first.