Eighth in Line

Dartmouth will soon have a new dean of the College. That position, vacated last June by Ralph Manuel, has in recent months been filled by the associate dean, Alvin Richard, who has served as acting dean. The dean of the College oversees all undergraduate affairs, from planning and policy formulation to operations.

On December 1, 1982, Edward J. Shanahan will become the eighth dean of Dartmouth College. Shanahan, 39, a New Yorker, will come to Hanover from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, where he is currently serving as dean of students. Shanahan, who holds a doctorate in English from Fordham University, has also served as an instructor in an inner-city Upward Bound project, taught romantic literature at Fordham, and developed orientation and counseling programs for the University of Wisconsin. He began at Wesleyan in 1972 as director of housing and became associate dean there the following year. Since his appointment in 1977 as dean of students, he has discharged a number of duties, including academic advising, personal counseling, oversight of residential life, orientation for transfer and exchange students, and foreign-study advising. He served Wesleyan also as advisor to many organizations, among them the Board of Fraternity House Presidents, the Wesleyan Volunteers, Non-Traditional Students, the Campus Center Committee, and the Committee for Handicapped Students.

"I'm terribly excited," Shanahan said, "about becoming a part of the tradition of excellence Dartmouth so thoroughly represents. " He cited as his major concern the quality of student life at the College. President McLaughlin, announcing Shanahan's selection after a nationwide search, commended him for having fashioned a distinguished career at a distinguished school and expressed confidence that with Shanahan's appointment here, the Dartmouth deanship would continue "in good hands."