CLASS dean plans to set high standard

The UH College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences has appointed John W. Roberts as its new dean.

John Antel, provost and senior vice president of academic affairs at UH, announced the appointment. It took effect on July 1.

Roberts has been involved in many initiatives to promote growth and development for students and staff, including establishing a faculty mentoring program that is designed to help retain women and minority faculty members in the arts and humanities programs at Ohio State.

After only a few months, Roberts has made headway toward many goals and ideas that he hopes will help CLASS become a better college and UH a better institution.

“Our goal is to make CLASS a major contributor to the University’s effort to achieve (flagship status),” Roberts said. “My goal is to develop initiatives that will increase the success of students in CLASS by lowering the attrition and failure rate of undergraduate students in certain required classes and increase the graduation rate overall.”

Roberts said he would like to work with faculty more to increase support for more research.

“I would like to find ways to improve graduate education in the college by finding ways to improve the competitiveness of graduate programs through enhanced funding for recruitment and retention of students,” Roberts said.

Roberts said that he applied for the position after learning of the ambition and potential UH has, especially in becoming a premier institution of higher education.

“UH probably has more ambition toward greatness than most public universities at this time and the ability to realize it,” he said.  “It has strong leadership and outstanding programs, many of which are already nationally recognized for their quality.”

Students are eager to see what Roberts has to offer for CLASS, and are content with the changes.

“I’m happy to see that UH is bringing diversity to CLASS and that it is working as hard as it can to provide the most eligible people as leaders of our university,” media production junior Brittney Mathis said.

Before becoming dean, Roberts served as the appointed chair of the department of African-American and African studies at Ohio State University and taught at the University of Pennsylvania.

“(Roberts) stellar academic and administrative career, combined with his strong record of support for a diverse and global educational experience, matches the vision for a quality education that is central to our campus,” Antel said in a recent press release. “I congratulate the search committee, chaired by Dr. Cynthia Freeland, for its excellent work.”