Newly allocated resources from the College of Liberal Arts means that, for the first time, the institute will have its own faculty appointments to help instruct and advise some 400 students pursuing one of two majors housed in the department in the Social Sciences building on the West Bank, Raheja said. The impetus for change came from a task force appointed by Steve Rosenstone, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, Raheja said. Charged with the task of improving the college's international education, the task force advocated creating faculty positions with a global studies focus as part of the institute's transformation. Programs of old were largely delivered by teaching assistants, but now some of the college's best faculty members will step in, Rosenstone said. Three first-time openings for joint positions in both the institute and the respective departments of anthropology, history and geography have been announced.
Officials expect further appointments in coming years.
Raheja encouraged undergraduate students to help interview the final candidates for faculty positions this winter. While graduate level students typically join that feeling-out process, she emphasized in this case undergraduates will be most affected. That's because over the next two years, new programs will be phased into the institute's curriculum now home to International Relations and Area Studies majors. East Asian, European, Latin American, Russian Area and South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. The task force decided that didn't make sense.