Penn selects College House faculty

Four of the University's 12 college houses will be under new leadership come fall, and several more will see new staff living with students.

Linda Brown, the Mirian L. Stirl Professor of Nutrition and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Nursing School, will become Faculty Master of Community House. Arnold Rosoff, a Legal Studies professor, will take over in Goldberg College House. Mark Liberman, Trustee Professor of Phonetics, will become head of Ware College House. And Jay Reise, a professor in the Music department, will join Hamilton College House.

"This is a group of faculty who are among the best faculty at Penn, the most important leaders at Penn, and some of the nicest people I know," Director of College Houses and Academic Services David Brownlee said.

Brownlee said that faculty master positions are advertised via announcements in the Almanac and letters sent to all standing faculty.

Each college house forms a search committee to select new faculty masters. The committees make recommendations to the provost, who makes the final appointment.

"Fundamentally, the faculty master is the academic leader of the house," Brownlee said.

"We're looking for the best teachers at Penn, people who are able to lead and organize things, and people who have a natural affinity for living with and working with a diverse community of students and other faculty and staff."

For Rosoff, the decision to become a faculty master came partly as a result of the increased activity within the house system. "There's some really interesting stuff going on in the college houses, and it seemed like a good time to get involved with it," Rosoff, the new Goldberg faculty master, said.

Also joining the college house system this fall are Emily Thompson, assistant professor of History and Sociology of Science, Peter Struck, an assistant professor of Classics, Douglas Toma, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Research on Higher Education, Lorraine Sterrit, the new Dean of Freshman, and Peter Conn, an English professor. All will be faculty fellows in the upcoming year.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.