Vice provost selected for leadership role at Boston University

LAWRENCE — A longtime figure at the University of Kansas will leave soon for a new leadership opportunity.

Ann Cudd, vice provost and dean of undergraduate studies at the University of Kansas, has been named the next dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Boston University.

“Ann’s contributions to KU should not be understated,” said Jeffrey S. Vitter, provost and executive vice chancellor. “Her scholarly record has helped elevate the stature of KU and created new awareness in her field. We’re also grateful for her dedication and hard work as a leader on campus.  She is departing KU having laid a strong foundation for continued excellence.”

Cudd will be at KU until July 3, and she plans to start her new role in August. The provost will announce an interim plan soon, and a search for Cudd’s replacement will commence in the coming weeks.

Cudd came to KU as an assistant professor in 1988 and was named a university distinguished professor of philosophy in 2012. She taught in the Department of Philosophy and the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program, serving as the program director from 2001-2008.  She was appointed associate dean for the humanities in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences in 2008, then vice provost and dean of undergraduate studies in 2013.

In her present role, she has led the university’s effort to raise its retention, progression and graduation rates. The chancellor has set the goals of 90 percent first-year retention and 70 percent six-year graduation rates, which would raise each about 10 percentage points from the current rates. Cudd has worked to institute the use of predictive analytics to reshape advising and to identify cohorts of students who may benefit from academic supports that will increase their success and help them progress toward degree completion. The plans to increase progression and graduation rates also includes course transformation to increase deeper learning, providing four-year degree plans now in the academic catalog, clear paths to degree, and removal of unnecessary policies and processes that are barriers to degree progress.

Cudd also serves as the ex officio administrative leader of the University Core Curriculum Committee, which oversees the KU Core. Several key academic support offices report to her, including the KU Writing Center, the Undergraduate Advising Center, the Academic Achievement and Access Center, the Center for Undergraduate Research, the Center for Civic and Social Responsibility, the Office of First-Year Experience and others.

During the 2010-11 academic year, Cudd served as co-chair of the Energizing the Educational Environment work group, which resulted in Goal 1 of KU’s Bold Aspirations strategic plan. Goal 1 focuses on student recruitment and delivering an enhanced undergraduate student experience. The KU Core Curriculum, first-year seminars, restructuring of undergraduate advising and enhancing experiential learning opportunities were key recommendations of the goal and have been important initiatives of Undergraduate Studies under her leadership.

An award-winning teacher, Cudd received the W.T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence in 2001 and the Mortar Board Outstanding Educator Award in 2005. She teaches courses in social and political philosophy, philosophy of social science and feminist theory. Her work to incorporate service learning into philosophy courses served as a model in the Center for Teaching Excellence.

She is the author of “Capitalism, For and Against: A Feminist Debate” (Cambridge, 2011) and “Analyzing Oppression” (Oxford, 2006), which was awarded the 2007 Byron Caldwell Smith Award. She has co-edited three books and published more than 50 philosophical articles on topics ranging from the nature of rationality to humanitarian intervention to sports metaphors. Cudd has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and KU’s Hall Center for the Humanities, and she was inducted into KU Women’s Hall of Fame. She served as the president of the Society for Analytical Feminism and as the program chair for the Central Division of the American Philosophical Association.

“I have been privileged to spend more than a quarter century working with outstanding faculty and staff colleagues at KU, teaching future global leaders and engaging in philosophical research on pressing issues of justice and inequality,” Cudd said. “I am grateful for opportunities I have been given to contribute through leadership roles at KU as well. I am very excited to go to Boston University, an outstanding private AAU research university, as dean of their college of arts and sciences. But I will always be a Jayhawk.”

Cudd received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and philosophy at Swarthmore College in 1982, a master’s degree in economics from the University of Pittsburgh in 1986 and a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh in 1988.