When Michael Mastanduno, associate dean of the faculty for the social sciences and government professor, assumes his role as dean of the faculty on August 1, he will be tasked with overseeing faculty from all 40 academic departments of the College. Several of Mastanduno’s colleagues interviewed by The Dartmouth said his prior experience as both a professor and an administrator will prove invaluable as he works to recruit and maintain high-quality faculty members in his new position over the coming years.
Dickey Center Director Kenneth Yalowitz said Mastanduno’s “even-tempered, measured” personality will suit him well as dean of the faculty.
“He’s very easy to work with and speak with,” Yalowitz said. “I think he’s ideal for the job because he’ll be very open and level with the humanities people, the scientists and the social scientists.”
Mastanduno has not only worked with College administrators, but also has extensive research experience that will help him connect with faculty and students, according to faculty members interviewed by The Dartmouth.
“He’s got a great reputation, not just as a researcher but as a teacher as well,” government professor Joseph Bafumi said. “He fits Dartmouth’s philosophy of world class researchers who also mentor students.”
Bafumi first met with Mastanduno when Bafumi was interviewing for a tenure-track teaching position at the College. Bafumi said he was impressed by Mastanduno’s “real capacity to put people at ease.”
“He was just so open it put me at ease in a time that should have been really nerve-wracking,” Bafumi said.
Mastanduno joined the faculty in 1987 and served as the director of the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding from 1997 to 2003.
Mastanduno also oversaw the implementation of the manuscript reviews program at the Dickey Center, according to Yalowitz. Manuscript reviews allow faculty members to seek input from colleagues on books or articles before they are published.
Mastanduno always took his teaching responsibilities seriously, even when acting as both professor and associate dean, according to Christianne Wohlforth, associate director of the Dickey Center.
“He still practiced for his lectures [before delivering them to students],” she said. “He’d really focus on his class, and go over what he was going to say and make sure it was fresh.”
After he assumed the position of associate dean of the faculty in 2003, Mastanduno continued to teach government courses.
Ben Nunnery ’10, however, said that Mastanduno was not “supportive of students” following a meeting with Mastanduno in his capacity as associate dean.
“I was very dissatisfied — it was unprofessional in the way he communicated with me,” Nunnery said. “He wouldn’t respond to e-mails and he didn’t seem to care much about the situation.”
Nunnery said he was surprised by the interaction given Mastanduno’s positive reputation.
“I had heard such great things about him, mostly from an academic perspective, though,” Nunnery said.
Nunnery is a former member of The Dartmouth Senior Staff.
Before he was named dean of the faculty, Mastanduno was planning to take advantage of “accrued leave time” and go on leave for the 2010-2011 academic year, Wohlforth said. This plan has since been put on the “back-burner,” she said.
“He’s deferring his leave to perform duties for the College,” Wohlforth said. “It speaks so well of him that he’d be willing to do that.”
Mastanduno — who worked with government professor Linda Fowler when she served as director of the Rockefeller Center — acted as a “terrific collaborator” during a trip to conduct outreach programs with academic institutions in Beijing in 2001, Fowler said.
“I watched him negotiate at a pearl market [in Beijing], and I came away impressed with his strong negotiating skills, which are very important for the job — negotiating with new hires, negotiating with current faculty members,” she said.
As director of the Dickey Center, Mastanduno instituted a framework that expanded “the role of the [Dickey Center] as an intellectual force of campus,” Fowler added.
During his tenure as the Center’s director, Mastanduno introduced several new initiatives, including the War and Peace Studies Fellowship program, according to Wohlforth.
Approximately 10 years ago, Mastanduno initiated the formation of faculty research groups from different departments on campus, Yalowitz said. Faculty research groups — which are awarded $7,500 annually — host speakers to present papers to Dartmouth professors. These meetings encourage dialogue on important issues, foster new academic ideas and form “centers of intellectuals here on campus,” Yalowitz said.
Although Mastanduno will continue to “balance varying constituencies” as dean of the faculty, he will likely maintain his relationships with students, according to Wohlforth.
Mastanduno currently remains in contact with students he taught prior to being appointed associate dean, Wohlforth said.
Marinn Carlson ’93, who asked Mastanduno to be her senior thesis adviser after she took one of his classes during her freshman year, has remained in contact with him since graduating from the College, she said.
“To me, he is the epitome of a Dartmouth professor in the sense he is someone who truly enjoys teaching and cares about his students and loves interacting with them,” Carlson said.
Carlson said that Mastanduno’s experience interacting with both students and faculty makes him the “perfect synthesis of what the Dartmouth administration should be.”
Mastanduno is currently coauthoring a book with government professor William Wohlforth, husband of Christianne Wohlforth, and John Ikenberry, a politics and international affairs professor at Princeton University, according to Christianne Wohlforth. The book, which discusses international relations theory, will be published in 2011.