Dean of the College

Dean of the College is an office which came into being in the spring of 1909 when President Wilson recommended to the trustees that the superintendence of discipline previously vested in the dean of the faculty be vested in a new dean to be called the dean of discipline. By the time the name of the first incumbent appeared in the catalogue that fall, his title had become dean of the college. In 1946 the dean of the college was made responsible for the enforcement of rules relating to undergraduate scholastic standing, and for oversight of the services and agencies designed to promote the academic development of undergraduates; in 1954, responsibility for undergraduate discipline and extracurricular activities (and in 1957 athletic activities) was assigned to a new officer, the dean of students. Occupants of the office of dean of the college have been:

Edward G. Elliott (politics) 1909-1912
Howard McClenahan (physics) 1912-1925
Christian Gauss (modern languages) 1925-1946
Francis R. B. Godolphin (classics) 1946-1955
Jeremiah S. Finch (English) 1955-1961
J. Merrill Knapp (music) 1961-1966
Edward D. Sullivan (French) 1966-1972
Neil L. Rudenstine (English) 1972-1977
Joan S. Girgus (psychology) 1977-

From Alexander Leitch, A Princeton Companion, copyright Princeton University Press (1978).