Cornerstone: the newsletter of the College of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 1, No. 1, Fall 1997

              From the Dean
s press time approaches, we are awaiting the arrival of the new dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Kumble R. Subbaswamy. He will be on board by the time you receive this newsletter. Let me introduce him to you.
Born and raised in southern India, Kumble Subbaswamy came to this country in 1971 to attend Indiana University. After receiving his Ph.D. in physics from that institution, and following a post-doctoral research stint at the University of California, Irvine, he joined the faculty at the University of Kentucky in 1978 and has been there since. During his time there, he served for two years as associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and for four years as chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy.
A Fellow of the American Physical Society, Subbaswamy’s research has been in the area of condensed matter, i.e., the behavior of solids and liquids from an atomic point of view.
In his introductory letter to faculty of our College of Arts and Sciences, Subbaswamy spoke of viewing a university as “first and foremost, a place for the pursuit of knowledge by students and scholars alike, where the highest possible rules for engagement must prevail—open and free discourse of ideas, regardless of where they come from and where they may lead; respect for and celebration of diversity of people, cultures,
and opinions.” When someone comes in from “the outside,” the mark of what they will have to offer comes as much from the questions they pose as from the statements they make. As one to whom many of these have been directed, I can attest that your new dean definitely knows the right questions to ask. He is both seasoned and youthfully energetic, and the College will be in excellent hands under his leadership.
Associate Dean Charly Mallery and Assistant Dean Rita Deutsch will continue in the roles they have held for several years.
To this team, Dean Subbaswamy has added as associate dean Daniel L. Pals, professor of religious studies. Dr. Pals received his Ph.D. in 1975 from the University of Chicago. Author of Seven Theories of Religion (Oxford, 1996), he joined the University of Miami faculty in 1980 and has served also as department chair since 1983.
By way of reflecting on my year as interim dean, I have found this role to in-
volve an enormous variety of tasks, none more interesting than that of interviewing individuals who have been brought to campus to be considered for one of our faculty openings. As the interviewing season progressed, I developed a set speech in response to the basic questions most candidates posed: What’s distinctive about the University of Miami? What are its drawbacks and its prospects for the future? I’d like to share the brief version of my response to these questions:
There are two facts that, especially when juxtaposed with each other, tell volumes about s this institution. The first | is that the University is,
1 in effect, about 50 years | old; although it was founded in 1926, the Depression and war slowed its development as a full-fledged university until the late 1940s. The second is that this University is about 37th highest in federal funding among U.S. universities, most of which are far older. (Editor’s note: The figure on page 2 shows the College’s
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Dean Kumble R. Subbaswamy