Following the departure of Dean Jane McAuliffe last year, the College launched a nationwide search for McAuliffe’s successor. In making Interim Dean Chester Gillis her permanent replacement, the College felt right at home. Gillis, the Catholic Studies chair in the department of theology and one of Georgetown’s leading voices on religious pluralism, brings a rare know-how of administrative complexities on the Hilltop.The challenges facing Gillis are manifold: a complex advising system that leaves many students to fend for themselves, inflexibility in cross-school studies and, as a result of the recession, major setbacks to innovation in the natural sciences.Gillis’ experience as a professor teaching courses at all levels – from The Problem of God to Christianity and Interreligious Dialogue, a senior seminar – and a strong record on student interaction and mentoring lend him the mindset necessary to navigate the College’s advising system. As it is, the system uses a variety of deans and faculty advisers to help students depending on their undergraduate class. The yearly shifts inhibit opportunities for sustained relationships among students, deans and faculty.Gillis has already put forth measures to sharpen the distinction between life mentoring and academic advising. Naturally, academic advising must cater to a student’s undergraduate level. Mentoring, however, should remain constant during students’ four years on the Hilltop.Of all the schools at Georgetown, the College – as the largest and most academically diverse – must expand opportunities for study among schools. Gillis has affirmed his commitment to making cross-school minors a reality at Georgetown. Such a measure would enhance the intellectual freedom of students. Gillis has thus far avoided the subject of cross-school majors, however – a measure that would require considerable accommodation, coordination and versatility by the four schools.Georgetown’s historically low commitment to the sciences is no secret. Recent initiatives – such as heavy recruitment of new faculty members and planning of the new science building – have set in motion a reversal of the status quo. The recession, however, has dealt a blow to the College’s move forward. In order to compensate for the delayed construction of the new science building, Gillis has sought affordable means to recruit faculty in the natural sciences. His pledge to make progress in the sciences – in spite of recession and his own academic limits as a theologian – holds promise.An authority on religious pluralism, Gillis’ work as director of the Berkley Center’s Program on the Church and Interreligious Dialogue opens doors for the university’s development as an institution committed to global outreach. As Georgetown seeks to reaffirm and readapt its Jesuit identity to meet modern-day demands, Gillis’ intercultural understanding should not be underestimated.Critics have little cause for concern. The search committee for the new dean combed the nation for the best replacement – administrators did not merely pick Gillis out of convenience. His vision is based on forward thinking, guided by his experiences in 21 years spent at Georgetown; he is the person to lead the College forward.
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