The following message to the University community is from York Vice-President Academic and Provost Rhonda Lenton:
Dear Colleagues,
It is with extremely mixed feelings that I announce that Associate Vice-President (AVP) Graduate and Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies Barbara Crow will be leaving York University to take up an exciting new leadership opportunity as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science at Queen’s University, effective July 1, 2017.
Barbara joined York University as a faculty member in 2001, having earned both undergraduate and graduate degrees from this institution. She has served as, first, Interim Dean and then Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and AVP Graduate since 2012. Prior to that appointment, she held the positions of Associate Dean Research in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and Director of the Graduate Program in Communication and Culture.
Barbara has been absolutely dedicated to enhancing the quality of graduate education and the experience and success of all graduate students at York through enhanced supports and services, planning and administrative coordination, and the introduction of new graduate program opportunities. As AVP and Dean, she has led the revisioning of graduate studies at York, undertaking initiatives to significantly increase the number of prestigious grants, fellowships and other awards (e.g., NSERC, SSHRC and Trudeau Fellowships) to York’s graduate students; introducing a new graduate funding model to enhance student support and student success; developing and implementing a system to move graduate academic and funding records online; and enhancing opportunities for graduate students to engage in professional and skills development. She has also served as chair of the Revisioning Graduate Education working group that has provided recommendations on actions to be taken as part of the implementation of the Institutional Integrated Resource Plan to advance York’s University Academic Plan 2015 – 2020. As a member of the senior leadership team at York, Barbara has been an engaged, thoughtful, and collegial contributor to key discussions about directions for the University. At the provincial level, she has contributed to the enhancement of graduate education as the former chair of the Ontario Council of Graduate Studies, where she lobbied the provincial government to increase funding for international and Aboriginal Students.
As Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science at Queen’s University, Barbara will lead a Faculty of about 11,000 undergraduate and 1,600 graduate students and 500 faculty members in 27 departments and schools, providing undergraduate and graduate education in a range of programs across computing, creative arts, humanities, languages, life and physical sciences, and social sciences.
Barbara will be leaving York as of May 31, 2017, and we will have opportunities in the coming months to publicly acknowledge her accomplishments. For now, please join with me in thanking her for her enormous contributions to York University over the past fifteen years and in wishing her every success in her new role at Queen’s University. We will miss her.
Information in regards to plans for leadership within the Faculty of Graduate Studies will be forthcoming soon.