New Dean of Humanities

NEW DEAN ANNOUNCED FOR OHIO STATE'S COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES

     COLUMBUS -- Kermit L. Hall, dean of the Henry Kendall
College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tulsa since
1992, will become the dean of the College of Humanities at The
Ohio State University.

     The announcement was made Tuesday (5/24) by Richard Sisson,
Ohio State's senior vice president for academic affairs and
provost.  The appointment, which has the support of President E.
Gordon Gee and which is subject to approval by the University
Board of Trustees, is effective July 1, 1994.  Hall's salary will
be $135,000.

     Sisson said that Hall brings to the deanship a depth and
breadth of professional experience that will "help the college
enhance its existing areas of excellence and vigorously explore
new areas.

     "Dr. Hall's record is one of exploration, achievement, and
distinction," Sisson said. "Despite the considerable teaching and
administrative responsibilities assumed during his career, he has
maintained a high level of scholarly research and has contributed
immeasurably to our understanding of the performance and the
place of the judiciary in society and to the impact that judicial
proceedings and decisions have in our lives.  His qualifications
are unique and he will bring much to the academic discourse at
Ohio State."

     Hall received a Ph.D. in history from the University of
Minnesota in 1972.  He received an M.S.L. degree from the Yale
University Law School in 1980, an M.A. degree from Syracuse
University 1967, and a B.A. degree from the University of Akron
in 1966.

     "I am extremely pleased with the appointment of Dr. Hall,"
Gee said.  "He is one of this nation's outstanding scholars with
a proven record in administration.  As well, he is a creative and
highly skilled teacher and an energetic proponent of sharing the
lessons of his scholarly research with the community at large.
He brings with him an interdisciplinary approach that will
benefit the entire university."

     Prior to serving as dean at the University of Tulsa, he was
a professor of history and law for 10 years at the University of
Florida, where he also served three years as chairperson of the
Department of History and two years as director and chair of the
University Council on Faculty Development.  He has also been an
associate professor of history at Wayne State University and an
assistant professor of history at Vanderbilt University.

     He is the author of five books on the history of law, the
courts, and public life.  He has been the editor or co-editor of
nine others. He was editor-in-chief of The Oxford Companion to
the Supreme Court, a book that has received numerous awards
including the 1993 Gavel Award of the American Bar Association,
the 1993 American Library Association Outstanding Book Award, and
the 1993 New York Public Library Distinguished Book Award.  He
has contributed articles and chapters to many other books and
publications. He has held positions of professional leadership in
many organizations and has lectured widely, including at Ohio
State where he presented a talk entitled "The Power of Comparison
in Teaching About Rights" at the Mershon Center in 1993.

     Hall is one of five persons recently appointed by President
Clinton and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve on the John F.
Kennedy Presidential Assassination Records Review Board, a board
charged with supervising the release of documents connected with
the investigation of the assassination of President Kennedy.

     Hall is one of five persons who will travel to Lithuania and
Poland in late June and early July to explain the American
constitutional system to leaders in those countries.  The program
is sponsored by the U.S. Information Agency.

     He and his wife, Phyllis Hall, are both Ohio natives.  She
has taught elementary school for 20 years.

     Hall said his appointment is an opportunity for him "to get
back to my Ohio roots and to do so at the flagship research
institution in the state."

     "I look forward to providing academic leadership to a group
of wonderfully talented scholars and teachers," Hall said. "The
College of Humanities has an enviable reputation that would prove
attractive to the nation's best faculty and graduate and
undergraduate students.  The college is a wonderful resource for
humanistic learning for all the citizens of Ohio. I look forward
to listening to the chairs, directors, and faculty and to working
with all of them in building the college into a premier
institution of humanistic learning and teaching.  Working
together, we will make the next quarter century an era of
achievement as great as -- if not greater than -- the quarter
century just passed."

     He said he has great enthusiasm for Ohio State's land grant
mission of teaching, research, and service, adding, "It's great
to be a Buckeye again!"

     David O. Frantz has been serving as acting dean of the
College of Humanities for the past year.  Frantz, who received
his A.B. degree from Princeton University and his doctorate from
the University of Pennsylvania, is a professor of English who
specializes in Renaissance literature.  He has been a member of
the Ohio State faculty for 26 years and served as associate dean
in the College of Humanities prior to his appointment as acting
dean.

     "Dr. Frantz has done an outstanding job for us during a
challenging transition marked by financial uncertainty and
programmatic change," Sisson said. "The entire university is
indebted to David for his sensitivity, his commitment, and his
leadership in guiding the college for the past year and for his
contributions to the college during his tenure as acting dean."

     The College of Humanities is composed of 12 departments, six
centers, and the Division of Comparative Studies in Humanities.
The departments are: Black Studies; Classics; East Asian
Languages and Literatures; English; French and Italian; Germanic
Languages and Literatures; History; Linguistics; Near Eastern,
Judaic, and Hellenic Languages and Literatures; Philosophy;
Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures; and Spanish
and Portuguese.  The centers are: Epigraphical Studies, Folklore
Studies, Foreign Language, Jewish Studies, Medieval and
Renaissance Studies, and Women's Studies.

     As of Autumn 1993, the college had 322 faculty and 1,633
undergraduate majors and 888 graduate students.
                                
                                #

Contact: Dr. Richard Sisson, (614) 292-5881.


[Submitted by: GERSTNER  (gerstner@ccgate.ucomm.ohio-state.edu)
               
Tue, 24 May 1994 15:42:22 -0500 (EST)]
All documents are the responsibility of their originator.