In Short: New Deans, Trustees, and Transfer Students

Published June 24, 2021

© Kahn/courtesy NYU Photo Bureau

GENE ANDREW JARRETT ’97, an English professor and dean at New York University, has been named Princeton’s dean of the faculty, effective Aug. 1. Jarrett will join Princeton’s faculty as the William S. Tod Professor of English.

After graduating from Princeton as an English concentrator, Jarrett earned his master’s degree and Ph.D. from Brown University. He began teaching at the University of Maryland, College Park, in 2002 and later taught at Boston University before joining the faculty at NYU.

In his role at Princeton, Jarrett said he hopes to recruit, cultivate, and retain distinguished faculty. Jarrett said in a University statement that he also aims “to help advance the University’s longstanding commitment to having a positive impact on humanity.”

Jarrett is the first person appointed as dean of the faculty who was not already a current Princeton faculty member. He will succeed electrical engineering professor Sanjeev Kulkarni, who has served in the role since 2017.

Princeton University/Department of Politics/Sameer A. Khan/Fotobuddy

AMANEY JAMAL will be the next dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), starting Sept. 1. Jamal, the Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Politics and director of the Mamdouha S. Bobst Center for Peace and Justice, joined the Princeton faculty in 2003. Her research interests include political behavior in the Arab world and Muslim immigration to the United States and Europe. Jamal succeeds Cecilia Rouse, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

The University announced a MAJOR GIFT from Wyc Grousbeck ’83 and his wife, Emilia Fazzalari, to support the expansion of the undergraduate student body. A dormitory in one of the two new residential colleges being built south of Poe Field will be named Grousbeck Hall. The University did not release the amount of the gift. Grousbeck is governor, managing partner, and CEO of the NBA’s Boston Celtics. Fazzalari is CEO of Cincoro Tequila.

The University offered admission to 16 TRANSFER APPLICANTS, 1.2 percent of the 1,349 who applied. Of those offered admission this year, 10 are on active U.S. military duty or have served in the military. Nine of those admitted are first-generation college students.

Nine University TRUSTEES began new terms July 1: MARISA DEMEO ’88, an associate judge for the D.C. Superior Court; BLAIR EFFRON ’84, co-founder of Centerview Partners; LORI DICKERSON FOUCHÉ ’91, former CEO of TIAA Financial Solutions; BOB HUGIN ’76, former CEO of Celgene; KATHY KIELY ’77, the Lee Hills Chair in Free-Press Studies at the Missouri School of Journalism; TIMOTHY KINGSTON ’87, the chairman of Goldman Sachs in Chile; ELIZABETH MYERS ’92, a managing director at J.P. Morgan; KATHRYN ROTH-DOUQUET *91, founder and CEO of the nonprofit Blue Star Families; and young-alumni trustee MORGAN SMITH ’21, a Project 55 Fellow in Chicago.

Members of the UNIVERSITY’S JEWISH COMMUNITY were harassed on at least two occasions during Commencement weekend, according to a May 21 statement from the Center for Jewish Life’s board of directors. Recent exchanges on social media and residential-college listservs, the board added, had “moved beyond political disagreement to antisemitism.” President Eisgruber ’83 responded to the incidents in a statement posted online. “Sharp, intense, and provocative disagreement about Israel and Palestine is fully consistent with the debate that must occur on college campuses,” he wrote. “Harassment, heckling, stereotyping, and intimidation are not.”

Fifteen professors are transferring to EMERITUS STATUS after a combined total of more than 500 years on the faculty:

CHIH-P’ING CHOU, East Asian studies, 42 years

LYNN ENQUIST, molecular biology, 27 years

EDWARD FELTEN, computer science and public affairs, 28 years

ANDREW L. FORD, classics, 35 years

OLGA HASTY, Slavic languages and literatures, 28 years

MICHAEL JENNINGS, German, 40 years

GERTA KELLER, geosciences, 36 years

SARA MCLANAHAN, sociology and public affairs, 31 years

ALEXANDER NEHAMAS *71, philosophy and comparative literature, 31 years

PHILIP NORD, history, 40 years

JAMES RICHARDSON ’71, creative writing, 41 years

THOMAS SHENK, molecular biology, 37 years

YAKOV SINAI, mathematics, 28 years

MARTA TIENDA, sociology, 24 years

ROBERT J. WUTHNOW, sociology, 45 years

Princeton will require all students to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination by Aug. 1 in order to enroll for the fall semester. Vaccination will be required for faculty and staff as well. In a May 20 letter to the campus community, President Eisgruber ’83, said the University expects students to be in residence and teaching to be in person when classes begin Sept. 1. Extracurricular activities are expected to resume, and the eating clubs are slated to reopen as well.

In May, the New Jersey state senate and assembly passed Laura Wooten’s Law, requiring the state’s middle schools to teach civics and provide “the knowledge and skills for active citizenship.” Wooten, a former member of Princeton’s dining services staff who died in 2019, was the longest-serving poll worker in the United States.

Photo: Sameer A. Khan

In a virtual Reunions gathering May 21, members and alumni of the Chapel Choir celebrated the career of Penna Rose, director of Chapel music, who is retiring after 29 years at the University. The choir created a video performance of “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” which is available at bit.ly/reunions-music.

Courtesy Princeton University Advancement

In Memoriam: LYDIA OSBORNE, longtime office manager and assistant to the director of the Alumni Council and an honorary member of three Princeton classes (’50, ’74, and ’83), died April 24. She was 74. For more than three decades, Osborne worked diligently and effectively to make Maclean House a vibrant, welcoming home for alumni. Vice President and Secretary Emeritus Robert Durkee ’69 remembers directors of the council asking how best to manage the many programs they offered, the volunteers they assisted, and the other responsibilities they had to carry out. “Don’t worry,” he would tell them, “Lydia will know what to do.”

For the Record

An earlier version misstated one detail about Gene Andrew Jarrett ’97’s teaching career. He was a professor and faculty administrator at Boston University before coming to NYU.

Published in the July 2021 Issue