Jason Zentz begins new role as assistant dean

August 13, 2018

On June 1, Jason Zentz began a three-year appointment as Assistant Dean of Academic and Faculty Affairs in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office. In his new role, Jason is taking on several administrative responsibilities. These include leading the academic unit review process and the initial substantive review process for tenure and ladder faculty appointments.

Research universities like Yale typically consist of several different types of academic staff. Instructional faculty members, such as lecturers, are primarily responsible for teaching courses, while research faculty members, such as research scientists, are primarily engaged in research. Ladder or tenure-track faculty members have substantial responsibilities in both research and in teaching, and after a period of time, they are eligible to apply for tenure—a permanent appointment that can only be terminated under extraordinary circumstances.

The Dean’s Office “oversees faculty searches, recruitment, hiring, mentoring, promotions, retentions, and compensation for all ladder, instructional, and research faculty in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.” While new faculty members are typically hired by the existing faculty members in each department, the Dean’s Office creates and enforces policies on recruitment and promotions for all departments. It also reviews candidates for faculty positions and applications for tenure to ensure that all faculty members fulfill the qualifications for their positions, and allocates resources to departments for hiring new faculty.

As leader of the academic unit review process, Jason works with his colleagues to evaluate the performance of each department and provide guidance for future work. As part of the tenure and appointment review process, Jason also ensures that all applications for faculty positions or for tenure are compliant with applicable law and policy, and that the proper procedures have been followed for each application.

Jason received his PhD here at the Department of Linguistics in May 2016, writing his dissertation on wh-questions in the Shona language with Professors Bob Frank and Raffaella Zanuttini. Until he began his new position in June, Jason stayed on in the Department as a postdoc on the Yale Grammatical Diversity Project while working part-time in the Dean’s Office.

Congratulations to Jason on his new position!

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