Dean of Arts & Sciences Heading to University of Pittsburgh
Ann Cudd will become provost of her alma mater
Ann Cudd, dean of Arts & Sciences for the past three years, is leaving to become the provost of the University of Pittsburgh. Cudd, who is also a College of Arts & Sciences professor of philosophy and who earned a master’s and a doctorate at Pittsburgh, steps down as of July 31, Jean Morrison, BU provost, said in an announcement emailed to the University community.
“Dean Cudd has brought energy, enthusiasm, and thoughtful leadership to her role,” Morrison wrote, “advancing CAS’s robust, multidisciplinary portfolio and leading important efforts to improve diversity, inclusion, and access.”
Morrison said Cudd “has been instrumental in the implementation of the BU Hub, the University’s first university-wide general education program,” which launches this fall.
The provost said BU would conduct a national search for Cudd’s successor, adding that she’d update the community in the coming weeks on the timetable of that effort. She and President Robert A. Brown will name an interim dean, effective August 1, after consulting “broadly within CAS,” she said. The interim dean will serve during the 2018-2019 academic year as BU searches for a permanent successor.
“A change in leadership for an academic unit the size and prominence of CAS within Boston University’s academic ecosystem is a significant undertaking,” Morrison wrote.
“At the same time, it provides a valuable opportunity for introspection and self-assessment as we determine the attributes and experiences that are essential qualifications for the individuals charged with guiding our academic units to continued excellence.”
As a scholar, Cudd helped develop the quantifying of women’s oppression that became known as analytical feminism. She came to BU from the University of Kansas, where she had worked for a quarter of a century, rising to vice provost. In her academic career, she has published numerous papers and argued that capitalism benefited women by offering them jobs and income that freed them from traditional strictures.
She also defended the liberal arts against advocates of more professionally geared fields of study, saying that the former prepares students for multiple jobs over the course of their lives and teaches them essential ethical and social thinking.
Cudd succeeded Virginia Sapiro, a CAS professor of political science, in the deanship. Sapiro had led the college for eight years.
The College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences enrolls almost 7,000 undergraduates and almost 2,000 graduate students. It is “often referred to as ‘the heart of Boston University,’” Morrison wrote in her email, “nurturing the discovery, creation, transmission and application of knowledge and understanding across the humanities and social, natural and computational sciences. The next Dean of CAS will be charged with further enhancing the quality and stature of the College.”
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