Columns::August 27, 2001
Minority enrollment
Gordhan Patel, grad school dean, named VP for research
Casting your vote
Office manager in special education department receives college staff award
Forest resources professor’s career branches off in different directions
Watkins named School of Leadership director
Newsmakers
A new class of leaders
New Media Institutute rocks
Symposium focuses on vet research
Campus News
Dyer to step down as vice president for instruction
By Sharron Hannon
shannon@uga.edu
Tom Dyer has worn many hats in his 26 years at the University of Georgia—as both faculty member and administrator. “The
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one I wear most comfortably is faculty member,” says Dyer, who has told Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Karen Holbrook that he wants to step down from his current role as vice president for instruction and associate provost after fall semester to return to teaching and research.
The position of vice president for instruction was created by Holbrook in the spring of 1999, after her arrival on campus the previous fall. The purpose was to strengthen classroom instruction, with special emphasis on undergraduate education.
“I appreciate the great enthusiasm Tom brought to this job and the significant work he has done to integrate academics and scholarship into all aspects of student life,” says Holbrook. “But I also understand his desire to step back into his faculty role to teach and work on his next book. Tom’s efforts have underscored the importance and value of the position; thus we will initiate a search for his successor in the near future.”
Dyer previously held administrative positions in academic affairs from 1984 to 1988 and returned in the spring of 1998 as acting associate vice president for academic affairs to aid in the transition to a provost system. He served as interim provost and senior vice president for academic affairs during the summer of 1998. He became acting vice president for instruction in March 1999 and officially assumed the role in fall 2000. Earlier, he had served as an associate vice president in the Office of the Vice President for Public Service, from 1989 to 1994.
“Tom Dyer is someone who has contributed a great deal to the university in many different ways,” says President Michael F. Adams. “Although his specific role will shift from administrative duties back to full-time faculty status, I’m sure we will continue to count on his dedication and creativity.”
Dyer holds the title of University Professor, which recognizes faculty who have had a significant impact on the university, and has a joint appointment with the history department and the Institute of Higher Education, to which he will return. He is the author of four books, including a bicentennial history of the University of Georgia, published in 1985 by the University of Georgia Press, and a muchacclaimed 1999 book, Secret Yankees: The Union Circle in Confederate Atlanta, published by Johns Hopkins University Press. The latter was completed after what he describes as “20 years of sporadic research, interrupted by teaching and administrative duties.”
As vice president for instruction, Dyer has worked with administrators in student affairs and housing to integrate scholarship into all aspects of student life by bringing instruction, advising and academic assistance into residence halls. New programs have ranged from setting up language communities for students studying Spanish and French to offering special classes in the residence halls to help students learn more about computers. The Freshman College, a summer program design to introduce new freshmen to college life, and the Franklin Residential College, which just opened this fall, are among other initiatives he implemented.
Dyer was also instrumental in creating UGA’s Teaching Academy, which develops faculty leadership to support instruction, and a post-doctoral teaching fellows program, which enables post-doctoral students to gain classroom teaching experience while working in their academic areas. He has taught and mentored graduate students throughout his tenure as an administrator.
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