Special Committee Completes VES Review

A mysterious special advisory committee chaired by Dean of Undergraduate Education Lawrence Buell has completed its review of the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies, a committee member said yesterday.

The committee member, Robert Storrs, who is curator of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, said the report would go to Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles and members of the VES faculty in the next few weeks.

"We have just signed off on the report, which will be circulated to all the relevant parties," Storrs said. Storrs declined to discuss the content of the report.

Faculty members and VES employees gave differing accounts of the purpose of the committee, which met throughout the last academic year and is largely made up of experts from outside the University. The committee has conducted extensive interviews with department faculty, employees said.

VES department chair Alfred F. Guzzetti said the committee was taking a look at the entire department. Buell said he would not comment on the committee's purpose.

"I don't have any comment about its scope or its target," Buell said.

But Senior Lecturer on Environmental Studies Arthur L. Loeb and two VES sources said the committee's focus was on why a professorship once held by Professor of Visual and Environmental Studies Emeritus Dimitri Hadzi has remained vacant for the past three years.

"The primary purpose of the committee was to see why no studio appointment was made after Dimitri Hadzi resigned," Loeb said. "I had a very good discussion with the committee, and I look forward to seeing their report."

Hadzi did not return a phone call to his home yesterday.

In an interview in his Sever Hall basement office, Guzzetti said he did not believe vacant professorships were part of the committee's focus. Instead, the department chair characterized the review as a once-in-a-generation look at the direction and purpose of VES.

"They are looking at the whole department, and it's presumably going to advise the dean what direction to go in and what direction not to go in," Guzzetti said.

Guzzetti said he would like to have more senior faculty in the department.

But he does not expect Knowles, who is limited by the Faculty budget deficit, to add any more faculty as a result of the review.

"One thing I can say is that I think we don't have enough professors," Guzzetti said. "That's no secret. The dean has heard that hundreds of times."

Instead, Guzzetti said VES might undergo some rearranging as a result of the committee's recommendations.

"The department's not going to increase in size, so if there's a change there's going to be a redeployment of resources," Guzzetti said

"They are looking at the whole department, and it's presumably going to advise the dean what direction to go in and what direction not to go in," Guzzetti said.

Guzzetti said he would like to have more senior faculty in the department.

But he does not expect Knowles, who is limited by the Faculty budget deficit, to add any more faculty as a result of the review.

"One thing I can say is that I think we don't have enough professors," Guzzetti said. "That's no secret. The dean has heard that hundreds of times."

Instead, Guzzetti said VES might undergo some rearranging as a result of the committee's recommendations.

"The department's not going to increase in size, so if there's a change there's going to be a redeployment of resources," Guzzetti said