Two University of Colorado at Boulder faculty members have been appointed to new leadership positions by Interim Provost Susan Avery.
Professor John Stevenson of English has been named associate vice chancellor for graduate education and associate dean of the graduate school replacing Adrian Del Caro. Professor Jeff Cox, of the departments of English and Comparative Literature and Humanities, is the new associate vice chancellor for faculty affairs replacing Susan Kent.
Both Cox and Stevenson began their appointments over the summer. Stevenson's part-time appointment will become full-time on Sept. 1.
"Both Jeff and John bring wonderful administrative and leadership experience to these positions and have great collaborative and people skills," Avery said. "I'm excited about the possibilities that will emerge in graduate education and faculty affairs with their expertise on the team."
As Associate Vice Chancellor for Faculty Affairs, Cox supervises the six-person staff at the Office of Faculty Affairs and is responsible for a variety of activities associated with faculty life and academic programming on the Boulder campus.
His duties include acting as chair of the Vice Chancellor's Advisory Committee, the faculty committee responsible for secondary review of all reappointment, promotion and tenure decisions. Cox also is delegated authority by the Provost to review and approve all offer letters related to hiring faculty and exempt professionals on the Boulder campus.
Cox has an important role in a variety of policy development and training activities, including new faculty orientation, academic program review, post-tenure review, recruitment and hiring, salary equity reviews and the Faculty Teaching Excellence Program.
Since joining the CU-Boulder faculty in 1998, Cox has been director of the Center for Humanities and the Arts and a professor of English and Comparative Literature and Humanities. He has chaired or been a member of more than a dozen campus committees and advisory boards, providing leadership in academic programs and faculty affairs. Cox was an English professor at Texas A&M University for 17 years before coming to CU-Boulder.
As associate vice chancellor for graduate education and associate dean of the Graduate School, Stevenson supervises graduate student academics, funding and employment policies. He manages the Graduate Teacher Program and five staff members in the student support sector. Stevenson is responsible for coordinating graduate programs, developing new degrees, acting as chair of the graduate school curriculum committee and representing the Graduate School both on campus and at national meetings.
He also oversees funding of graduate students including stipends, benefits, teaching and research awards, university fellowships and financial aid. He administers various campus-wide fellowship and small-grant competitions, as well as diversity programs for recruitment and retention. Stevenson also approves all graduate student appointments for teaching and research and administers graduation requirements and thesis specifications.
Stevenson was director of the Farrand Academic Program in 2004 and from 1996 to 2004 was chair of the English department. Under Stevenson's leadership, the number of English majors at CU-Boulder nearly doubled.
He also has been director of the Program in Writing and Rhetoric, the Center for British Studies and the former Colorado Humanities Center. He has extensive experience on campus-wide committees, including the Arts and Sciences Personnel Committee, the Program Review Panel and the Chancellor's Task Force on Recruitment and Retention.
Professor Kent will return to teaching in the history department and Professor Del Caro will return to teaching in the department of Germanic and Slavic languages and literatures.