Professor and department chairman Brent Iverson has been appointed dean of the School of Undergraduate Studies (UGS) by Executive Vice President and Provost Steven Leslie. Iverson will take the post vacated by former Dean Paul Woodruff last fall and filled for the past year by Interim Dean Larry Abraham. The appointment is effective July 1.
The School of Undergraduate Studies was created as an outgrowth of a curriculum reform effort led by Powers that resulted in the implementation of new core curriculum requirements, including the university’s Signature Courses — a reading- and writing-intensive requirement designed to expose first-year students to rigorous academic discourse and interdisciplinary thinking.
Future challenges for the school include implementing the new flag requirements as part of the core curriculum; expanding college readiness materials; and promoting integral participation in the president’s graduation rate initiative, which seeks to raise the four-year graduation rate to 70 percent by 2016. More than half of the students entering the school each fall want to pursue fields of study related to science, technology, engineering and math — the STEM fields.
http://www.utexas.edu/news/2013/05/09/acclaimed-teacher-and-researcher-appointed-dean-of-undergraduate-studies/