The new dean of the College of Arts and Sciences will officially begin his new position at the University today.
Scott Coltrane, the former associate dean of the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at the University of California, Riverside, said his position there was focused solely on the humanities, which was a large factor in his decision to take the position as dean of CAS. Coltrane said he held his previous position for the past 20 years.
“Here, this job is much larger,” Coltrane said. “Everyone takes classes in the College of Arts and Sciences. It really is the heart of the University.”
Linda Brady, the former Vice President and Provost of the University, chose Coltrane to take the position before leaving to be chancellor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
“Scott has a compelling vision for the liberal arts and sciences that is essential to sustaining academic quality at the University of Oregon,” Brady said. “We are delighted that he has accepted this critical leadership position at the UO.”
Coltrane said that over the next few weeks he will be in “a period of transition, learning how the University works and where its strengths and weaknesses are.”
Coltrane hopes he will be able to use this position to work with new programs and strengthen old ones. He said that while dean at UC Riverside, he worked with the ethnic studies program to set up a graduate program.
Coltrane plans to take a similar role in helping the University’s recently created Ethnic Studies Department and International Studies Department through that transition.
Coltrane’s second role is as a sociology researcher, with a primary focus on the father’s role in families.
“I began studying fathers 25 years ago, when it was unusual to be studying fathers,” Coltrane said. He studies why and when a father will get involved with the family in any number of capacities.
“Men have doubled their contributions to families over two decades,” he said. “Although they did start at a pretty low rate.”
Coltrane is eager to start the new position and get settled into Eugene in general.
“I’m an eternal optimist,” Coltrane said. “My work is about blending traditions with flexibility and creativity; that’s the challenge and that’s why it’s so exciting.”
[email protected]