Martha Harris, professor of business and economics, has accepted a position as the new assistant dean for academic affairs.
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A similar position was previously occupied by former Baker University employee Rob Flaherty. After his departure from the university, it “just freed up some resources to sort of redeploy and kind of bring several other kind of part time positions into this one position together,” Harris said.
“I was very pleased that Dr. Long agreed to move the resources for that line back to the academic side, and so as a result, we’re able to reinstate what was once a position in the dean’s office,” Brian Posler, executive vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college of arts and sciences, said at the faculty senate meeting Oct. 2.
Harris had expressed interest in taking on extra duties aside from teaching full-time, and after Posler arrived at Baker, he offered the position to her.
“I had the chance to meet Dr. Posler when I was the chair of the committee that did the search for his position,” Harris said. “So, I kind of got to know him early on and it just kind of worked out that he asked me if I was interested and I said, ‘yeah, I would appreciate the chance to work with him and learn about some new things.’”
Duties as the assistant dean for academic affairs include event coordination, such as commencement and convocation, study abroad, student concerns and faculty athletic representative.
Harris will continue to teach business and economics courses as needed, as well as courses in the Quest program.
One of her apprehensions in taking the position is the fact that she will not encounter the same student interaction.
“That’s my apprehension is that I won’t get to know as many students and won’t feel as connected to as many students,” Harris said. “I’ll still be teaching and will certainly still get to work with the students that are studying abroad and so I hope that that will work out okay.”
