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Role of DUS

Role of the Director of Undergraduate Studies

Although the DUS will continue to approve all transfer equivalencies and exceptions regarding the major requirements, the DUS will no longer be responsible for the academic advising of departmental majors.

The DUS, in partnership with the department chair and the appropriate departmental standing committee(s), will engage the department as a whole in curriculum and pedagogical revision and innovation.

The DUS will be asked to think strategically as well as tactically about the department’s undergraduate curriculum, seeking out the discipline’s best pedagogical practices and playing a major role in facilitating departmental discussions on how these might best be implemented.

The DUS will work with the department’s undergraduate committee to develop the corporate identity of declared majors, helping to see to it that an organization of majors is established and maintained. This organization should be consulted on curricular matters as appropriate, and encouraged to sponsor extracurricular activities that bring majors and faculty members together in a shared community of interests.

The DUS will work with the department chair and the professional advisor, where appropriate, to match students with faculty mentors.

The DUS will facilitate an active relationship with the professional advisor, and will be the professional advisor’s primary liaison with department.

The DUS will work with the professional advisors and the A&S career advisor on career preparation for students in the major – via career orientations for majors, job-hunting and resume-writing workshops for majors, and the like.

(Approved Fall 2007)