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Helgesen
Named Interim Vice Chancellor for Outreach; Demski to Direct UMass
Extension
Robert Helgesen, dean of the College of Food and Natural Resources (CFNR) since 1989, has been named interim vice chancellor for Outreach, and Stephen Demski, interim vice provost for Outreach, has been appointed interim associate vice chancellor for Outreach and director of UMass Extension. The three-year interim appointments were announced Wednesday by Cora B. Marrett, senior vice chancellor for Academic Affairs and provost. Both appointments take effect July 1. Helgesen will report to Marrett, as will the vice chancellor for Research, for which a national search is underway. That organizational change was announced by Chancellor David K. Scott last year and is designed to better coordinate teaching, research and scholarship and outreach activities. "Central to our planning is the idea of an integrative university which includes even better synergy between the teaching, research, and outreach missions," said Scott this week. "This reorganization moves us further toward this goal." "We are fortunate to have both Bob Helgesen and Steve Demski available to provide leadership to outreach at this important and exciting time," said Marrett. "As dean, Bob has demonstrated how broadly and how effectively a faculty's teaching and research strengths can be placed in society's service. Steve Demski has gathered together the various units on campus dedicated to outreach and has formed strong relationships with the schools and colleges and with external groups." The campus, said Marrett, demonstrates "an unusually strong and pervasive commitment to what we are coming to call 'academic outreach,' the application of our strengths in teaching and research to the wider community we serve." These appointments "will make our commitment to outreach as clear and convincing as is our commitment to teaching," she said. Marrett will name an acting dean of CFNR from current staff before starting a search for a permanent dean. John Gerber, current director of UMass Extension, is returning to the faculty. Marrett says she is grateful to Gerber for his "energetic and effective leadership of Extension programs since 1992." Demski has been interim vice provost since 1997. |
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