Theater professor takes on new role as art chair

Professor of Theater and Dance Dan Goulding assumed chairmanship of the art department on Feb. 1, taking over the reigns from Professor of Art Bill Hood who stepped down due to health reasons.

Goulding, who also served as chair of the theater and dance department, will be assisted by an associate chair, Professor of Art John Pearson.

Goulding will remain chair for two and a half years. He is excited to work with Pearson, who will focus on the studio art aspects of the department. Pearson was unavailable for comment this week; he was at an out-of-town conference.

Goulding said he was surprised to be asked to serve as chair. "I was approached just before Christmas break," he said. "I was surprised and flattered. It's not typical to go outside a department for the chair."

Despite its rarity, both Goulding and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Clayton Koppes, agree the move is a smart and strategic one.

Goulding said the art department will undergo changes in governance and curriculum during his tenure. "The thought was that someone from the outside would be a good facilitator for these discussions," Goulding said.

Another reason to turn to Goulding was a lack of interest among art faculty themselves. "In this case we were having trouble finding people who were willing to take on the responsibility of chair," Koppes said, "in part because of leave patterns and tenure clocks."

Koppes thinks Goulding will be an important asset to the department. "I think we are extremely fortunate Dan Goulding was willing to chair," he said. "He is ideally placed to facilitate the art department's discussion of governance questions."

Since agreeing to assume chairmanship, Goulding has been busy talking to all art faculty about the change. "I was extremely impressed by the faculty," he said. "There are a lot of ideas and a lot of creativity. I feel complete support from everyone."

Feeling support from the art faculty is important to Goulding. "You don't want to feel like an alien being," he said.

A second concern Goulding had going into the job was the condition of film studies, a program of the theater and dance department. Goulding is the only film studies professor at the college. Although the notice was too sudden to find a new faculty for film studies Goulding said the college will provide someone to teach two of Goulding's classes next semester. In the meantime Goulding is continuing his full teaching load on top of the department chairmanship.

Goulding has assumed chairmanship towards the end of an intensive department evaluation. The regular program evaluation, which all departments undergo every seven years, will be complete in several weeks. It was completed by both inside and outside evaluators.

The review is confidential, but Goulding and Koppes said the evaluators were impressed with both the studio art and art history departments. Once the final review is complete it will be submitted to the Educational Plans and Policies Committee, which will work with the department to set an agenda for the department in the future.

Despite this positive evaluation Goulding knows the studio art department has several "pressure points." "People are turned away for classes all the time and it is frustrating as hell," he said.

In addition to overall curricular and governance discussions Goulding will oversee several faculty searches. Two tenure track positions, one half-time in studio art and one full-time in art history, will be open at the end of the 1999-00 school year. The department will form search committees this semester in order to run national searches for both positions.

Additionally, Goulding started the semester with an emergency faculty change; an associate studio art professor, Sarah Schuster, took a sudden leave of absence. The position was filled by Audra Skuodas, a nationally-known artist who has taught at Oberlin in the past. "We were very lucky to resolve that situation so well," Goulding said.

Goulding: Film studies professor Dan Goulding was appointed chair of the art department recently. (photo by Susanna Henighan)