Princeton Weekly Bulletin, February 23, 1998
Associate Dean Dobin
Renaissance scholar, computer buff works on "all matters concerning the undergraduate curriculum"
By Caroline Moseley
Hank Dobin was an associate professor of English, teaching Shakespeare at the University of Maryland, College Park, when he noticed in the Chronicle of Higher Education that Princeton University needed an associate dean of the college.
A dedicated scholar of Renaissance England, he was also associate chair of his department and past chair of the College Park Senate, "an elected body of faculty, students and staff that advised the president on policy matters" -- and hence, experienced in the complexities of college administration. Equally attracted to administrative and academic endeavor and tempted by the possibility of "working in a key role at a premiere university," he says, "I thought, 'Why not?' and applied for the position."
In October 1996 he came to Princeton to replace the retiring Eva Gossman. In this position, he works closely with Dean of the College Nancy Weiss Malkiel, faculty members, departments and students "on all matters concerning the undergraduate curriculum."
Coordinates Freshman Seminars
That means, for starters, that Dobin coordinates the Freshman Seminar Program with faculty director Anthony Grafton, Dodge Professor of History. This involves recruiting faculty and planning each seminar. The program of Freshman Seminars, says Dobin, is "the largest nondepartment on campus. We offered 53 seminars this year."
He also coordinated last fall's highly successful Sophomore Workshops, a new series of short noncredit courses held in the residential colleges.
And, as secretary of the Committee on the Course of Study, Dobin reviews proposals for new courses and for significant program changes, such as deletion of a course or a change in requirements. In addition, he reviews "one-time-only courses, of which there are about 125 a year." Such courses "might be offered by a visiting faculty member or perhaps someone trying out a new idea." Among the one-time-only courses offered this semester are History of Asians in America, Writing About Nature and The Parable: Evolution of a Genre.
Another part of Dobin's job is reviewing proposals submitted to the 250th Anniversary Fund for Innovation in Undergraduate Education.
These courses, he says, "often involve new teaching technologies." The fund "also welcomes introductory courses that fulfill the new distribution requirements, as well as science and technology courses designed for nonscientists, and courses in comparative American cultures and international studies."
Other responsibilities include serving as academic adviser to independent concentrators (two seniors and four juniors this year); working with University Scholars ("students with exceptional talent in an academic or creative area that can't be pursued within the regular curriculum"); coordinating Student Initiated Seminars; supervising reading courses ("something like a private tutorial for students with very specific interests"); and overseeing approximately 20 students each year from Westminster Choir College and Rutgers University who attend Princeton classes.
Intellectual partnership
This sounds like enough to keep several deans busy, but Dobin thrives on the excitement of "intellectual partnership with the faculty as they think through changes in curriculum and pedagogic practice," of "working with terrific students," and of "learning about the newest thinking in every discipline -- whether engineering or art and archaeology, I can get a sense of how the fields are evolving."
Though a curricular generalist, Dobin brings to his job a particular interest in technological innovations in pedagogy. Characterizing himself as an "enthusiastic amateur," he taught himself to use Claris Home Page and, with guidance from CIT, built the current web page for the Office of the Dean of the College. The page provides information to a variety of audiences -- faculty, staff, students and parents, offering an introduction to office staff and to office services and programs.
Working with the Office of the Dean of the Graduate School, Dobin organized a pilot project in both Classics and Chemistry that made available relevant web materials for teaching and research.
Combining his 17th and 21st-century skills, Dobin also built a web page for the freshman seminar he taught last semester in Wilson College called Parents and Children: Shakespearean Texts and Contemporary Theories. "The seminar," he says, "explored the intergenerational dynamics and conflicts in Hamlet, King Lear and The Tempest through the perspective of 20th-century theories of psychology and human development."
Critical but supportive dialog
Feeling that "technology could facilitate the work of the course," he posted student papers on the web so that other students could read them. He also organized an e-mail discussion list -- "a stunning success," he says. "Each week one student moderated discussion, which elicited critical but supportive dialog."
The computer time constituted "an extra three hours of class," Dobin estimates. "I'd arrive at my office in the morning to find 12 substantial e-mail pieces on King Lear, written in response to each other. I was amazed by the quality and profundity of the student discussion -- a discussion that proceeded almost entirely without the teacher."
Coming to Princeton from a large state university has meant adjusting down in some ways and adjusting up in others, says Dobin. "In the English Department at Maryland," he points out, "we had 70 faculty members, 700 majors and 300 graduate students."
Still, as an administrator, "The resources available to faculty and students at Princeton let us strive continually for new levels of excellence. At Maryland, with its ever decreasing state support, my job was almost always to say 'no' to new ideas, especially if they required funding. Here, it's a pleasure to be able to say 'yes' -- sometimes a qualified 'yes,' but usually 'yes.'"