EXPANSION: Princeton University announced last week the creation of a Center for African American Studies, which will double the number of faculty slots in the field, provide research and fellowship opportunities, and increase the breadth and depth of course selection to offer students a new concentration.
The development of an African-American studies concentration may take five years, according to Valerie A. Smith, director of the center. But the university has already begun that expansion, including three new faculty hires who began this fall: Joshua B. Guild in history, Anne A. Cheng in English, and Melissa V. Harris-Lacewell in political science.
“They certainly knew Princeton was poised to enhance African-American studies,” Ms. Smith says. “It was a factor in their decision to come.”
Other hires in the works, according to Ms. Smith, include faculty members in English, history, and psychology, and a director of undergraduate studies for the center.
The program, which will be physically housed at Stanhope Hall, in the center of the campus, will include three possible subfields: race and ethnicity, African-Americans in public policy, and African-American culture and life. Faculty members will continue to identify subfields that will help incorporate African-American studies into the overall liberal-arts curriculum of the university, says Ms. Smith.
Expansion into the overall curriculum will involve freshman seminars, sophomore programs, and course development, according to Eddie S. Glaude Jr., associate professor of religion and a member of the advisory committee that proposed the new center.
During a time when many institutions across the country are struggling to pay for similar programs, according to Mr. Glaude, the new center will focus on how African-American studies “can play a central role” in the university’s curriculum.
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DEAL AGAIN: After just five weeks on the job, the vice chancellor of the University of Nevada Health Sciences Center is calling it quits, lured by a higher paying job in the state’s most famous industry: gambling.
Thom Reilly, 45, was the manager of Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, before he took on the job of managing the university system’s new health-education program last month. James E. Rogers, the system’s chancellor, says he hired Mr. Reilly, who is also an associate professor of public administration at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, because he was the “perfect guy for the picture.”
But Mr. Reilly says that soon after he started his new job, Harrah’s Entertainment approached him and offered him the job of leading the company’s national philanthropic efforts. “The timing was not good,” says Mr. Reilly. But he couldn’t refuse the offer, calling it “an opportunity to gain national and international experience.”
And, apparently, a little bit of pocket change. Mr. Reilly wouldn’t comment on his compensation, but Mr. Rogers says Mr. Reilly told him he would be earning double his university salary, which was $250,000.
The chancellor says he was “not very happy” with Mr. Reilly’s decision to leave for Harrah’s. “I had just gotten back from London,” Mr. Rogers says. “I was on a plane for hours ... so I was a little rummy when he sat here and told me that. But when somebody says, I’m going to, in effect, make twice as much as you’re paying and I like what they’re doing,” there’s nothing that can be done.
Mr. Reilly will continue to be president of the health-sciences center’s board and teach a class this semester at Las Vegas.
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COMINGS AND GOINGS: Charles M. Vest, president emeritus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been nominated as the next president of the National Academy of Engineering. He would succeed William A. Wulf. ... Gen. Wesley K. Clark, a retired four-star Army general and 2004 presidential candidate, is joining the Ronald W. Burkle Center for International Relations at the University of California at Los Angeles. He will teach seminars and host an annual conference on national security.
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http://chronicle.com Section: The Faculty Volume 53, Issue 6, Page A8
